Does Red Lake [Indian Reservation] Protect Drug-Traffickers?

Star Tribune ^ | 02.20.06

[wallcrawlr]

Drug investigations on the reservation were thwarted by tribal officials, according to three former police officials. "We were doing our jobs with our hands tied behind our backs," one told a newspaper.

Three former law enforcement officials on the Red Lake Indian Reservation say that tribal politics and resistance from officials thwarted investigations into drug trafficking there, the New York Times reported Sunday.

Clifford Martell, a former senior police investigator at Red Lake, accused the tribal chairman, Floyd Jourdain Jr., of pressing him to drop investigations of relatives, friends and political associates. Martell contended that he was fired in July when he refused to back off.

Martell's partner, Russ Thomas, who resigned in October, said that Red Lake police dispatchers "would narc us out," or alert suspects to criminal investigations, the newspaper reported. Timothy Savior, the recently fired police chief for the tribe, also said drug investigations were hampered by court and police department employees.

Thomas said he and Martell stopped telling others in the police department whom they were investigating and worked their cases at night instead of during the day so they would not be spotted as easily.

"We quit using our own people," he said. "We were doing our job with our hands tied behind our backs."

< snip >

Jourdain's 17-year-old son Louis was the only person charged after another teenager killed nine people and then himself at the reservation high school last March. Louis Jourdain later pleaded guilty to sending threatening communications, a count that a federal judge found was not related to the shootings. He was sentenced to juvenile rehabilitation and treatment.

[TexasCajun]

Has anyone ever told American Indians how much money the US Government is holding for them?

Don't want 'em drinking it all up, I guess?

[joesnuffy]

That's life and law enforcement on the rez...sounds just like the rest of 'em...

imo

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

My prediction:

Someone in the Red Lake community who knows something about the drug trade there will come forward and name names.

And then they will die, under mysterious circumstances.

[ex-Texan]

Back when Bubba Clinton was the Guv, the tiny city of Mena, Arkansas was the air drop capitol on the east coast for illegal drugs. Some knowledgeable sources claimed there was a CIA link. After Bill was elected president, there were rumors about drugs being air lifted to reservations in Montana. Some reporters went out there to investigate and some never returned. I do not believe anybody is investigating what is taking place late at night on Native American reservations. Planes fly in and drop bags of drugs and fly out again. Minnesota is no different from Montana, Oregon, North Dakota, and Washington. No big deal. The Fibbies only see what they have been told to see. But what do I know, anyway.

[xarmydog]

Been to some Indian reservations,and am sad to say, they were quite pitiful.The impression I got was,it seemed like they had just given up.

[kenth]

Been to some Indian reservations,and am sad to say, they were quite pitiful.The impression I got was,it seemed like they had just given up.

That was the point of the reservations. It's working better than hoped.