Federal authorities said Tuesday they have indicted 15 people on charges of trafficking illegal drugs from Mexico and distributing them in Minnesota, including a man from that state they identified as the leader of the operation.

Clinton James Ward, a 45-year-old Minnesota native, is charged with more than a dozen drug offenses as well as engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, under what is known as “the drug kingpin statute,” Minnesota U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said during a news conference.

Luger said Ward was behind “one of the largest and most prolific drug organizations that has operated in Minnesota.”

The criminal enterprise charge carries a mandatory prison sentence of 20 years, while possession with intent to distribute carries a 10-year mandatory minimum. Under the United States Sentencing Guidelines, Ward could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of all of the offenses he faces.

The others named in the indictment face a variety of charges including conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and possession- and distribution-related drug offenses. Authorities say they were living and distributing drugs in Minnesota, according to a federal prosecutor’s memo to the court.

After his drug-related arrest in 2019, Ward fled to Mexico where he established ties with the Sinaloa and CJNG drug cartels and built an international drug trafficking organization, Luger said.

For five years, Ward ran a distribution network that shipped and sold thousands of pounds of methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine in Minnesota, Luger said. Members of his network transported the drugs from Mexico in shipping containers, private vehicles and semi-trailers, he said.

In March, Mexican authorities caught Ward and handed him over to the FBI.

Agents seized over 1,600 pounds (725 kilograms) of methamphetamine, 30,000 counterfeit fentanyl pills, 4 kilograms (9 pounds) of cocaine, 2 kilograms (4.5 pounds) of fentanyl, 45 guns and over $2.5 million in drug-related proceeds, authorities said.

Luger said it was “one of the most sophisticated and significant drug trafficking organizations we have prosecuted.”

More than 50 people tied to Ward have been charged with trafficking-related crimes, Luger’s office said.

Ward’s attorney, Kurt Glaser, said he knew the indictment was coming but hadn’t heard about it when contacted by The Associated Press. He declined to comment but to say Ward has a wife and two children in Mexico.

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