Crime & Safety

2 Burnsville Residents Arrested in Connection with Major Heroin Ring

Natashia Lashaye Daniels and Marquis Demon Bettis were arrested July 12 and charged with being part of a wide-reaching Minneapolis heroin-dealing ring.

A man and a woman from Burnsville have been charged in connection with the dismantling of what authorities have called a major Twin Cities heroin-dealing ring.

Natashia Lashaye Daniels, 28, is charged with first-degree heroin possession, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Marquis Demon Bettis, 27, is charged with two felonies: being a felon in possession of a firearm, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $30,000 fine, and possession of a firearm with the serial number removed, which has a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

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Bettis is also charged with providing false information to police, a gross misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $3,000 fine.

Last week, police announced that eight people – many of them members of the same family – had been arrested in connection with the heroin ring, which they blame for at least 10 heroin deaths in Minneapolis this year.

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Authorities said the ring was selling highly potent heroin, 70 to 90 percent of it being funneled through a Mexican drug-trafficking ring based in Chicago.

According to the criminal complaint, Daniels – who lives in the 2000 block of 117th Street East – frequently rented vehicles for some of the main heroin dealers involved in the conspiracy. A confidential informant told investigators that one of the main suspects had been dropped off near Daniels’ home about six times.

Police executed a search warrant July 12 on Daniels’ Burnsville address and found 77 grams of heroin, a digital scale and a quantity of plastic bags in the kitchen.

Bettis was arrested early on the morning of July 12 when a Burnsville officer on patrol on Highway 13 East watched a car make a wide right-hand turn, crossing into the inside traffic lane and then swerving back into the outside lane, according to the criminal complaint.

The officer made a U-turn and followed the car, which jerked from side to side several times and went over the shoulder line with both tires. As the officer was preparing the stop the car, the driver turned right onto Diffley Road and then left into a gas station parking lot.

As the officer walked toward the car, he smelled a strong odor of marijuana and alcohol. The driver and a passenger began to get out of the car; the officer ordered them back in.

The driver was putting his shoes on and appeared agitated, according to the complaint. He told the officer he didn’t have his license with him, but identified himself as someone with the initials CMB. A subsequent check of the name and date of birth provided by the driver didn’t match the name he gave.

Police conducted field sobriety tests on the driver, all of which he failed. He was arrested and fingerprinted and subsequently identified as Bettis, who lives in the 100 block of Highway 13 East.

Police towed Bettis’ car and conducted an inventory, during which they found a loaded handgun under the glove compartment with the serial number removed.

Bettis remains in the Dakota County Jail on a $500,000 bond. In addition to the firearms charges, he is being held on warrants charging him with seven other crimes, ranging from domestic abuse to contempt of court, dating back to 2008.

Daniels is free on her promise to make all future court appearances. An omnibus hearing in her case is scheduled July 30 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.


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