Posted: 2/23/06
Three charged in drug bust
By Joel Stottrup
Three individuals - a man and woman from Princeton, and a man from Cambridge - were arrested on drug charges early Saturday morning in Princeton and charged in court on Tuesday.
The drug bust was the result of a month-long investigation by the North Central Drug Task Force.
The force, which operates out of the Mille Lacs County Sheriff's Department, has officers from the Kanabec and Mille Lacs Sheriff's Departments and the Mille Lacs Tribal Police, plus funding support from the Princeton Police Department.
The individuals charged are Charles Alonzo Crapser, 25, Princeton; Elizabeth Marie Emery, 23, Princeton; and Randal Gordon Lovering, 29, Cambridge.
All three were still in the Mille Lacs County jail Tuesday morning after hearing their formal charges in Mille Lacs County District court.
All three were charged with felony controlled substance crime in the fifth degree (maximum penalty five years and/or $10,000 fine) but Crapser also received the more serious charge of a controlled substance crime in the first degree - attempted manufacture of methamphetamine. That has a maximum sentence of 10 years and/or $10,000 fine. Crapser was also charged with a misdemeanor, possession of drug paraphernalia.
The bust
Princeton police assisted the drug force's operation at 5:43 a.m. last Saturday by helping stop a vehicle that was leaving the Crapser residence at 505 3rd St. So.
Task Force Agent Jim Osowski was preparing a warrant to search the residence at the time when officers noticed a red Ford Mustang in the parking lot next to the residence. Officers surmised it hadn't been there long because of no frost on the window. Officers then saw the vehicle leaving.
Officers stopped the vehicle on the basis of an expired license plate. Officers reported being aware that Crapser was known to carry a handgun and so had each of the three vehicle occupants come out one at a time.
(No gun was found at the residence during the search but various kinds of ammunition was found, according to Osowski. A sword was also found in the car.)
Officers noticed a male passenger in the back seat of the Mustang, unable to stop moving and appearing to be trying to hide or retrieve something. He was identified as Crapser.
The complaint said that when Crapser was taken out of the vehicle he dropped some items from his hands to the ground, making the sound of shattering glass. Officers reported gathering up the glass pieces for what they believed had been a glass pipe for ingesting methamphetamine, also known as meth. Officers also found on the ground a white crystal material later field tested as positive for meth.
Also retrieved from the ground were a small green colored plastic baggy and a small brown jar, and a crystal substance.
Lovering was the driver of the vehicle and Osowski had information that Lovering was the supplier of Crapser's meth. The front seat passenger was Emery. Officers arrested the three and took them to the jail in Milaca.
Osowski got the search warrant signed by Judge Stephen Ruble, as well as a warrant to search the Mustang based on the traffic stop.
Crapser's living quarters were found to be a garage attached to his parents' residence.
Officers found and seized many chemicals from those quarters, the kind of chemicals that Osowski said are commonly used in manufacturing meth.
The chemicals included red phosphorous, lithium batteries, hydrogen peroxide, iodine, a solvent similar to toluene or acetone, phosphoric acid, a can of denatured alcohol and battery acid.
Items located inside defendant Crapser's quarters also included small weighing scales, hypodermic syringes, plastic baggies, razor blades, trays with a white residue, meth pipes, spoons with white residue, and a bag filled with white powder that tested positive for meth.
A search of the vehicle produced a large Japanese- type Samurai sword in the back seat where Crapser was sitting. A white baggy was found on the rear driver's side floorboard and it contained a white piece of paper with blue or gray lines believed to be the illicit drug LSD.
Emery told police that she had stayed at Crapser's residence during the night, the complaint said.
Princeton Union-Eagle
P.O. Box 278
Princeton, MN 55371
Telephone: 763-389-1222
Fax: 763-389-1728