Detroit man gets 9 year sentence for trafficking fentanyl on Red Lake Reservation

A man from Detroit has been sentenced to five years in prison followed by four years of supervised release for trafficking fentanyl on the Red Lake Reservation, according to the United States Department of Justice.

On March 13, 34-year-old Scot Lamonte Watkins Jr. pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel. Restitution was also ordered as part of Watkins’ sentence.

Court records indicate that in March 2021, Watkins distributed fentanyl pills, methamphetamine, and cocaine to people from the Red Lake Reservation. He, along with co-defendants Douglas Edward McClendon, 32, and Christopher Douglas Richard, 41, allegedly got fentanyl and other drugs from suppliers in Detroit and then went to Bemidji to sell them.

The defendants operated their drug distribution out of various hotels in the Bemidji area, according to court documents.

On March 12, 2021, law enforcement executed a search warrant at a hotel where the defendants were selling drugs. When authorities entered the room, Watkins and McClendon ran away while Richard flushed a large amount of fentanyl down the toilet.

Officers found more than 174 grams of fentanyl, 37 grams of methamphetamine, and other controlled substances, as stated in court records.

This case was investigated by the Paul Bunyan Drug Task Force, the FBI Headwaters Safe Trails Task Force, the Red Lake Tribal Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.