Three Arrested for Felony Drug Trafficking in Burnsville

Three people have been charged with felony drug trafficking after authorities raided their Burnsville home last week and seized methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and almost $30,000 in cash.

Blanca Isabel Vazquez-Cortes, 32, Raul Perez Garcia, 53, and Salvador Zarate, 21, were arrested Thursday at a home in the 400 block of West 157^th Street Court. All three remain in custody on $250,000 bonds, and Vazquez-Cortes and Garcia also are on Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds.

Each faces six counts of first-degree drug possession with intent to sell. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

According to the complaint, agents from the Southwest Hennepin Drug Task Force and local law enforcement officers executed a search warrant about 7 a.m. Thursday after a “lengthy and complex investigation” into heroin trafficking in the Twin Cities. The investigation included a controlled buy of heroin within 72 hours of the search warrant being issued, the complaint says.

Officers found Vazquez-Cortes sitting at a counter in the kitchen and told her to lie on the ground, where she was handcuffed. They found Garcia and Zarate in separate bedrooms, handcuffed them and brought them into the living room.

Police also found Vazquez-Cortes’ 9-year-old daughter in another bedroom.

The complaint says that agents then searched the home and found, among other items:

• More than 14 grams of cocaine in a jacket hanging in the 9-year-old’s closet
• 48 grams of heroin, along with balloons, drug packaging material and a Minnesota license plate that had been on the car involved in the earlier controlled buy of heroin
• More than $9,000 in cash in clear sandwich bags in a duffel bag
• A half-gallon plastic thermos containing dryer sheets, paper towels and plastic bags with about 117 grams of methamphetamine
• About $13,600 in cash in a jacket pocket in one of the bedrooms
• A spent .223-caliber shell casing in the back seat of Vazquez-Cortes’ Cadillac Escalade
• A plastic storage case containing a dozen cell phones
• Documents in Vazquez-Cortes’ name, including a handwritten letter from February stating that she works under the name Melissa Ramon
• Miscellaneous MoneyGram receipts
• About $4,260 in cash, photo identification and Social Security cards for Vazquez-Cortes and Melissa Ramon
• About 5.5 grams of heroin hanging on the wall in a kitchen cupboard
• A dozen cell phones and a digital scale in the kitchen
• A drug note ledger current through May 2
• Bags of assorted balloons, similar to those used to package heroin, on the kitchen counter

Officers also found five $20 bills that were used in the controlled heroin purchase. Before that purchase, agents photocopied the bills, then gave them to a confidential informant. The informant used the bills to buy heroin from Garcia, according to the complaint.

In all, the complaint charges, agents found about 119 grams of methamphetamine, 53 grams of heroin, 14 grams of cocaine and $27,900 in cash.

“It should be noted that a large amount of narcotics … were discovered in common and open areas where they would be easily accessible to Vazquez-Cortes’ young daughter,” the complaint says.

Zarate is scheduled to appear at an omnibus hearing May 16 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings. Vazquez-Cortes and Garcia have separate omnibus hearings scheduled for May 23, also in Hastings.