Federal prosecutors have secured their first guilty plea from an alleged drug smuggling ring they say mailed pills of fentanyl hidden inside stuffed animals.

Cornell Montez Chandler Jr. (Courtesy of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office)

Cornell Montez Chandler Jr., 25, of St. Paul, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul to conspiracy to distribute the drug.

Eight others from the Twin Cities have pleaded not guilty to the same charge. Federal authorities say the defendants were involved in mailing fentanyl from Arizona to Minnesota from August 2022 to Dec. 14, 2023.

The charges followed the seizure of 280,000 fentanyl pills that were sent in six packages through the U.S. Postal Service from Phoenix to the Twin Cities metro area. Authorities called the fentanyl seizure, which amounted to 66 pounds with an estimated value of over $2.2 million, the largest ever in Minnesota.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, just 2 milligrams of fentanyl can kill a person.

“With this seizure, we know that hundreds, if not thousands of lives have been saved,” Washington County Sheriff Dan Starry said in January, when charges were announced. The investigation involved law enforcement from Washington, Dakota and Ramsey counties, along with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations.

Disguised as birthday presents

Authorities say six people are jailed and charged in U.S. District Court in St. Paul in connection with the seizure of 280,000 fentanyl pills — described as the largest fentanyl seizure in state history — that were sent from Arizona to the Twin Cities metro area in stuffed animals between August 2022 and December 2023. A joint investigation between local and national agencies led to the seizure of over 66 pounds of counterfeit fentanyl pills with a combined estimated value of over $2.2 million. (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

According to his plea agreement, Chandler admitted he flew to Phoenix to buy fentanyl from one or more suppliers and that he and others mailed packages through the U.S. Postal Service to the Twin Cities for distribution. He also admitted they had mailed other packages that were not seized to the Twin Cities and that the pills then were passed to others for further dealing.

The drug ring disguised the stuffed animals as birthday presents and lined them with dog treats in an attempt to prevent drug-sniffing dogs from alerting them, the plea agreement says.

Federal prosecutors have agreed to pursue a prison term for Chandler of no more than 15½ years. He remains at the Sherburne County Jail ahead of a sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.

Chandler’s co-defendants are: Quijuan Hosea Bankhead, 30; Amaya Tiffany-Nicole Mims, 23; Fo’Tre Devine White, 30; Robiel Lee Williams, 24; all of St. Paul; and Shardai Rayshell Allen, 25; Stardasha Christina Davenport-Mounger, 24; Da’Shawn Natori Domena, 24; and Phyu Win Jame, 27, of Minneapolis.

Minnesota had 1,002 opioid-involved overdose deaths in 2022, according to the state Department of Health, and fentanyl contributed to 92 percent of them.

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By JULIA FRANKEL (Associated Press)

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said Sunday that it was establishing a new safe corridor to deliver aid into southern Gaza. But days later, this self-declared “tactical pause” has brought little relief to desperate Palestinians.

The United Nations and international aid organizations say a breakdown in law and order has made the aid route unusable.

With thousands of truckloads of aid piled up, groups of armed men are regularly blocking convoys, holding drivers at gunpoint and rifling through their cargo, according to a U.N. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media on the issue.

He said lawlessness has emerged as the main obstacle to aid distribution in southern Gaza — where an estimated 1.3 million Palestinians displaced from Rafah, or more than half of Gaza’s entire population, are now sheltering in tent camps and cramped apartments without adequate food, water, or medical supplies.

Here is a closer look at the security challenges facing the U.N. and aid organizations.

Israel’s ‘tactical pause’ stymied

Israel said Sunday it would observe daily pauses in combat along a route stretching from Kerem Shalom — the strip’s only operational aid crossing in the south — to the nearby city of Khan Younis. Before the pause, aid organizations had reported that the need to coordinate trucks’ movement with the Israelis in an active combat zone was slowing aid distribution.

The U.N. official familiar with the aid effort said that there has been no sign of Israeli activity along the route. The U.N. tried to send a convoy of 60 trucks down the road Tuesday to pick up aid at Kerem Shalom. But 35 of the trucks were intercepted by armed men, the official said.

In recent days, armed men have moved closer to the crossing and set up roadblocks to halt trucks loaded with supplies, the U.N. official said. They have rifled through the pallets in search of smuggled cigarettes, a rare luxury in a territory where a single smoke can go for $25.

The surge in lawlessness is a result of growing desperation in Gaza and the power vacuum that left by Hamas’s waning power over the territory, said Mkhaimar Abusada, an associate professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza who is now in Cairo.

With the territory’s police force targeted by Israel, he said, crime has reemerged as an untreated issue in Gaza.

“After Hamas came to power, one of the things that they brought under their control was the lawlessness of the so-called big clans,” said Abusada. “Now, that’s left for the Palestinians on their own to deal with it. So once again, we are seeing shootings between families, there are thefts, all the bad things are happening.”

UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, used to deploy local Palestinian police to escort aid convoys, but many refused to continue serving after airstrikes killed at least eight police officers in Rafah, the agency said.

Israel says the police are legitimate targets because they are controlled by Hamas.

Is any aid getting into Gaza?

The situation has largely paralyzed aid distribution to the south — particularly since Gaza’s nearby Rafah crossing with Egypt was closed when Israel invaded the city early last month.

The U.N. official said that 25 trucks of flour used the route Tuesday. Some private commercial trucks also got through — many of which used armed security to deter groups seeking to seize their cargo. An AP reporter stationed along the road Monday saw at least eight trucks pass by, armed security guards riding on top.

Before Israel’s offensive into the city of Rafah, hundreds of fuel trucks routinely entered the area.

The U.N. has now begun rerouting some fuel trucks through northern Gaza. Farhan Haq, a U.N. spokesman, said five fuel trucks entered Gaza Wednesday. The U.N. humanitarian office reported that these were the first fuel deliveries since early June and supplies remain scarce.

Aid groups say only a ceasefire and a reopening of the Rafah crossing could significantly increase aid flow to the area.

The military body in charge of coordinating humanitarian aid efforts, COGAT, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Security concerns also afflict aid from U.S. pier project

The U.S. installed a pier off Gaza’s coast last month, aiming to provide an additional route for aid to enter Gaza. But the ambitious project has suffered repeated logistical and security setbacks.

Cyprus, a partner in the effort, said the pier was up and running again Thursday after being detached for a second time last week because of rough seas. COGAT said Thursday there were “hundreds of aid pallets awaiting collection and distribution by the U.N. aid agencies.”

But there, too, security concerns are hindering distribution of aid.

The U.N. suspended its cooperation with the pier on June 9 – a day after rumors swirled that the Israeli military had used the area in a hostage rescue operation that left over 270 Palestinians dead. Photos of the operation have shown an Israeli helicopter in the vicinity of the pier.

Both Israel and the U.S. deny the pier was used in the operation. But the perception that the pier was used for military purposes could endanger humanitarian workers, and threaten humanitarian groups’ principles of of neutrality, the U.N. says.

Aid workers said they are working with the Israelis to find a solution, but that the security burden falls squarely on Israel’s shoulders.

U.N. and other humanitarian officials, including Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, met with Israel’s military chief and COGAT officials this week to seek solutions.

USAID said afterward that the meeting ended with promises of specific actions, but gave no details.

—-

AP correspondents Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report

The “Purple Rain” musical now has two Prince associates acting as music advisors and official run dates, the show’s producer Orin Wolf announced Thursday.

Robert “Bobby Z.” Rivkin, drummer of the Revolution, and New Power Generation keyboardist and onetime musical director Morris Hayes will advise producers on the production, which features a book by two-time Pulitzer Prize-finalist and MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (“Appropriate”), based on the original screenplay by Albert Magnoli and William Blinn.

The musical’s pre-Broadway world premiere will run April 10 through May 11 at the State Theatre in downtown Minneapolis, with an official opening night of April 30. Tickets are currently only available to Broadway on Hennepin season subscribers. See hennepinarts.org for details.

“Bringing in Morris Hayes and Bobby Z, two of Prince’s longtime collaborators, was extremely important as we move forward with the pre-Broadway premiere of ‘Purple Rain,’ ” said Larry Mestel, CEO of Primary Wave Music, which controls the Prince estate with three of his siblings, in a news release. “Having worked with Prince for years, they will ensure this production holds true to Prince’s vision and continues his legacy. Matching their history and musical contributions with Prince, alongside the creative team already in place, will surely bring magic to the stage.”

Jacobs-Jenkins, director Lileana Blain-Cruz and music supervisor Jason Michael Webb will join Rivkin and Hayes for a panel discussion at the sold-out Celebration 2024 event Saturday at Paisley Park.

The production will also be holding open casting call auditions in Minneapolis for all roles. Dates and information will be announced in the coming weeks and will also be available at purplerainbroadway.com.

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By HALELUYA HADERO (AP Business Writer)

TikTok disclosed a letter Thursday that accused the Biden administration of engaging in “political demagoguery” during high-stakes negotiations between the government and the company as it sought to relieve concerns about its presence in the U.S.

The letter — sent to David Newman, a top official in the Justice Department’s national security division, before President Biden signed the potential TikTok ban into law — was submitted in federal court along with a legal brief supporting the company’s lawsuit against measure. TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company ByteDance is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, which is expected to be one of the biggest legal battles in tech and internet history.

The internal documents provide details about negotiations between TikTok and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a secretive inter-agency panel that investigates corporate deals over national security concerns, between January 2021 and August 2022.

TikTok has said those talks ultimately resulted in a 90-page draft security agreement that would have required the company to implement more robust safeguards around U.S. user data. It would have also required TikTok to put in a “kill switch” that would have allowed CFIUS to suspend the platform if it was found to be non-compliant with the agreement.

However, attorneys for TikTok said the agency “ceased any substantive negotiations” with the company after it submitted the draft agreement in August 2022.

CFIUS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department said it is looking forward to defending the recently enacted legislation, which it says addresses “critical national security concerns in a manner that is consistent with the First Amendment and other constitutional limitations.”

“Alongside others in our intelligence community and in Congress, the Justice Department has consistently warned about the threat of autocratic nations that can weaponize technology — such as the apps and software that run on our phones – to use against us,” the statement said. “This threat is compounded when those autocratic nations require companies under their control to turn over sensitive data to the government in secret.”

The letter sent to Newman details additional meetings between TikTok and government officials since then, including a March 2023 call the company said was arranged by Paul Rosen, the U.S. Treasury’s undersecretary for investment security.

According to TikTok, Rosen told the company that “senior government officials” deemed the draft agreement to be insufficient to address the government’s national security concerns. Rosen also said a solution would have to involve a divestment by ByteDance and the migration of the social platform’s source code, or its fundamental programming, out of China.

TikTok’s lawsuit has painted divestment as a technological impossibility since the law requires all of TikTok’s millions of lines of code to be wrested from ByteDance so that there would be no “operational relationship” between the Chinese company and the new U.S. app.

After the Wall Street Journal reported in March 2023 that CFIUS had threatened ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a ban, TikTok’s attorneys held another call with senior staff from the Justice and Treasury departments where they said leaks to the media by government officials were “problematic and damaging.”

That call was followed by an in-person meeting in May 2023 between TikTok’s attorneys, technical experts and senior staff at the Treasury Department focused on data safety measures and TikTok’s source code, the company’s attorneys said. The last meeting with CFIUS occurred in September 2023.

In the letter to Newman, TikTok’s attorneys say CFIUS provides a constructive way to address the government’s concern. However, they added, the agency can only serve this purpose when the law – which imposes confidentiality – and regulations “are followed and both sides are engaged in good-faith discussions, as opposed to political subterfuge, where CFIUS negotiations are misappropriated for legislative purposes.”

The legal brief also shared details of, but does not include, a one-page document the Justice Department allegedly provided to members of Congress in March, a month before they passed the federal bill that would require the platform to be sold to an approved buyer or face a ban.

TikTok’s attorneys said the document asserted TikTok collects sensitive data without alleging the Chinese government has ever obtained such data. According to the company, the document also alleged that TikTok’s algorithm creates the potential for China to influence content on the platform without alleging the country has ever done so.