Shakopee Man Charged with Selling Phony Cocaine to Undercover Informant

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A Shakopee man has been charged with selling phony cocaine to an undercover informant in Minneapolis.

Terrell Steven Cunningham, 25, is charged with selling simulated drugs, a felony with a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, deputies received information from a confidential informant about a drug dealer known as “T.Y.” The informant made a monitored phone call to T.Y. and arranged to buy cocaine; the two met at Highway 55 and Shafer Road in Minneapolis, with officers nearby keeping the area under surveillance.

T.Y., later identified as Cunningham, pulled up and parked near the informant’s vehicle, and the informant approached Cunningham’s car and got inside, according to the complaint. Shortly afterward, the informant got out and left, meeting up with deputies and handing over the drug that Cunningham said was cocaine.

The informant gave Cunningham $100 in pre-recorded “buy money” for the cocaine, according to the complaint.

Officers subsequently stopped Cunningham’s car and arrested him. During a search of his car, they found the pre-recorded buy money and a bottle of codeine cough syrup.

The drug that the informant handed over to officers tested negative for cocaine.

Cunningham has been released from custody on a $3,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled Sept. 25 in Hennepin County District Court.

Cunningham was convicted Aug. 7 in Carver County of second-degree possession of cocaine, heroin or meth. He was given a 4-year stayed prison sentence, 15 years supervised probation and a year in jail to be served as work release.