Minnesota man charged with "kingpin statute" for allegedly running a Mexican drug trafficking ring

SEATTLE - Federal authorities announced the indictment of 15 people drug-trafficking charges, claiming they brought them from Mexico and distributed them in Minnesota. The alleged leader of the operation was included in the group.

Clinton James Ward, a 45-year-old Minnesota native, was 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.

Luger said 13 of the 15 people charged have been arrested, while the other two will be in custody "shortly."

Ward was arrested in Mexico on March 11 by DEA and FBI agents. He was then extradited to the United States, where he became one of very few Americans ever charged with the Continuing Criminal Enterprise Statute (CCE), which carries a mandatory prison sentence of 20 years. Under the U.S.'s Sentencing Guidelines, Ward could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of all the offenses he faces.

DEA and FBI agents seized more than 1,600 pounds of meth, 30,000 counterfeit fentanyl pills, nine pounds of cocaine, $2.5 million in trafficking proceeds and 45 guns from Ward's residence in Mexico.

Ward was originally arrested at a Vadnais Heights motel in 2019, but he managed to flee to Mexico, where he established ties with the Sinaloa and CJNG drug cartels and built an international drug trafficking organization.

For five years, the Minnesota-native shipped and sold thousands of pounds of methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine in Minnesota. Officials said that the drugs were moved on shipping containers, private vehicles and semi trucks before being broken down into smaller quantities and sent to the state. Local and federal law enforcement built their cases against Ward and his co-conspirators by intercepting several of those shipments.

More than 50 people with ties to Ward's drug empire have been charged with trafficking-related crimes, Luger's office said.

In a press conference held on Aug. 6, DEA Special Agent in Charge Steven Bell said the meth seized at Ward's Mexican residence equates to 5.8 million dosage units, or one dose for every Minnesota resident. "Mr. Ward lived a life of luxury," Bell said. "Those days are over."

When contacted by the Associated Press, Kurt Glasser, Ward's attorney, declined to comment except to say that Ward has a wife and two children in Mexico.