Six people were charged with drug crimes after drug task force agents staged two buys under surveillance in Wadena.
According to court records, on August 25, agents of the Central Minnesota Drug and Gang Task Force met with a confidential reliable informant who had been working with the drug task force for several months in undercover investigations. The CRI, later identified as 22-year-old Derek Kelly Meide of Staples, had been in contact with Jayme Leigh Fellman, 21, of Staples, and Jeffrey Scott Herner, 20, of Staples, and had arranged to purchase 1/8 ounce of methamphetamine. The transaction was to take place at their residence on Long Prairie Road in Staples. The agents fitted Meide with a digital wireless recorder transmitter. Meide was given $450 cash with prerecorded serial numbers. Agents overheard Fellman and Herner indicating that they would have to go to Wadena to get the meth.
Court records said the suspects were observed at Tapley Park and later at an area commonly referred to as Ski Hill Park in Wadena. Agents maintained surveillance on the Fellman vehicle as it went near Wadena Square Apartments. Meide said the money had been advanced to James Bryan Palazeke, 23, of Wadena, to buy meth. But shortly after he was given the money, Palazeke jumped out of the second story window at the apartment building.
According to court documents, Meide was later searched by agents and asked to explain what happened. He said Palazeke agreed to sell the meth and said he had to "run and get it" from an apartment and would return with the drugs. While they were waiting for him to return, some other people alerted them that Palazeke wasn't going to get the meth and was going to take off with the money. The three went back to Wadena Square Apartments to get the money, but when cops were arriving they left without the money or the meth, Meide told investigators.
Court records detail a second incident, on September 22, when Meide arranged to buy 1/4 ounce of meth from Fellman and Herner for $700. Meide was dropped off on a bench in front of a grocery store in Staples to wait to make the drug transaction. Agents tracked Meide, Fellman and Herner to a motel room in Wadena where they had barricaded themselves inside. Agents believed the three had purchased meth at an apartment building in Wadena, which was searched along with the motel room. In the motel room, agents found plastic sandwich bags, a clear glass pipe with white residue inside, and about $190 in currency, with serial numbers matching the ones earlier given to the CRI to purchase drugs undercover. At the residence, agents found plastic bags containing meth, a scale, several glass pipes, a snort straw, $2,808 in cash, pills, a water bong and packaging material, among other items. The Wadena Police Department, Central Minnesota Drug Task Force, West Central Minnesota Drug Task Force and the Wadena County Sheriff's Department conducted the searches.
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Six people face charges:
- James Bryan Palazeke, second-degree drugs (two counts)
- The CRI, Derek Kelly Meide, second-degree drugs (two counts)
- Jayme Leigh Fellman, first-degree drugs, three counts of second-degree drugs
- Jeffrey Scott Herner, first-degree drugs, three counts of second-degree drugs
- Bonnette Marguerite-Lynn Huddleson, 26, Wadena, second-degree drugs (two counts)
- Tamara Lyn Tucker, 42, Wadena, second-degree drugs (two counts)
All were charged in Wadena County District Court last week.
