FARGO-Law enforcement officers descended on a Trailblazer in the parking lot of the West Fargo Costco store on Tuesday and arrested a group of people, including a woman who had 2 pounds of methamphetamine in her purse .
The bust was the culmination of an investigation that began in August 2015 when a Drug Enforcement Administration task force learned of a group of people who were involved in obtaining methamphetamine in Texas and distributing it in Minnesota.
Court documents filed in Cass County District Court spell out how the task force monitored the group and waited for an opportunity.
That came in May when a deal was arranged and a meth shipment was planned for early June.
Armed with a cellphone number belonging to one of the traffickers, authorities tracked the phone starting June 3, when it "pinged" at a location in Texas. The pings were followed to Sioux Falls, S.D., and Renville, Minn., where two of the suspects live. Then it was off to West Fargo.
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According to court papers, the woman whose purse contained the methamphetamine was Susana Serrato, 41, of Edinburg, Texas, who is charged with delivering methamphetamine.
The four others arrested, Patricia D. Serrato, 34, and Guadalupe Serrato, 36, both of Renville, and Anna L. Sanchez, 41, of Weslaco, Texas, and Carlos G. Lopez, 57, of Mercedes, Texas, each face one count of conspiracy to deliver methamphetamine.
The five arrested remained in the Cass County Jail Thursday morning, June 9.
