BEMIDJI — Beltrami County is among eight counties in the state recently designated as a high-intensity drug trafficking area by the White House.
Since 2014, the Paul Bunyan Drug Task Force that serves north-central Minnesota has seen an exponential increase in drug busts and seizures.
In partnership with the Task Force, the Bemidji Police Department and the FBI, the law enforcement entities sought the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA, designation granted by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The area has seen a 12,500% increase in methamphetamine seizures and a 28,500% increase in opioid seizures in the last decade.
"When we first looked at those numbers we had, we were taken aback," said Jason Riggs, Beltrami county sheriff. "Like that can't be right, but those are the figures and we were blown away by the amount of seizures in the community."
Beltrami County also has an overdose rate that is more than twice the state and national average.
In 2021, there were 11,506 nonfatal hospital visits for all Minnesotans experiencing an overdose, representing an overdose rate of 2 per 1,000 residents. In the same year in Beltrami County, there were 221 overdose hospital visits, representing a nonfatal overdose rate of 4.8 per 1,000 residents.
Between 2014 and 2023, Beltrami County lost 125 of its residents to overdoses.
“It's simply supply and demand, and unfortunately we're kind of at the end of the the food chain here," Riggs said. "That's why we're targeted by these drug dealers — it is because we're at the end of the chain, there's more money to be made because the drugs are a little bit more scarce to us. ... So there's more profit margin for them.”
With the designation, law enforcement agencies working to disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking operations like the Paul Bunyan Drug Task Force will receive additional resources.
"With our initiatives, we can target these drug traffickers. Our goal isn't to punish or to target the user, we want help for those people," Riggs said. "We want to target the traffickers that are bringing the poison into the community.”
Beltrami County will be assigned to the North Central HIDTA, which is made up of counties in Minnesota and Wisconsin which have also received the designation. This includes St. Louis County.
"As exciting as it is to receive this designation, it is equally saddening as it validates the extreme drug problem our area has with illegal drug use and drug distribution," stated a news release. "It is our hope that this designation will bring additional attention and resources to our area for enforcement, treatment and diversion."
Jenny Vance is a peer recovery support specialist at Face it Together, where she meets with people where they’re at with their substance use disorder.
Vance said the downtown Bemidji organization uses harm reduction-based techniques and has an open door for anyone who wants a cup of coffee, information on how to use overdose-reversing Narcan and more.
"We just meet them where they're at," Vance said. "If they're going to continue to use, we just want to make sure they're safe in that. That can also impact the community wider, as in the syringe exchange: they bring their needles in, first of all; second of all, they're not spreading diseases around."
