St. Paul man sentenced to county workhouse, probation for role in fentanyl trafficking

Emily Baude KSTP

A St. Paul man was sentenced Friday morning in Hennepin County court after he was found with thousands of fentanyl pills.

Kevon Paul Fenner, 23, was sentenced to 180 days at the county workhouse and three years of supervised probation.

Fenner was charged with one count of first-degree drug sale and one count of first-degree drug possession in March, according to court records. The drug sale charge was dismissed.

On March 17, officers with Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Police were working an “interdiction detail” at Terminal 2 when a narcotics detection K9 alerted to the smell of narcotics coming from a blue, hard-sided roller bag with a bag tag displaying the owner as Fenner.

Officials noted Fenner grabbed the bag from the baggage claim carousel before walking away, according to the criminal complaint.

The complaint added that Fenner consented to a search of his bag, in which law enforcement officials found eight bags of blue M/30 oxycodone pills believed to be fentanyl counterfeit pills inside a Clorox container.

Officials estimated there were about 8,000 fentanyl pills weighing 866 grams, the complaint stated.

Fenner later admitted to law enforcement that he was flying to pick up a bag and transport it to Minnesota, adding that he knew he was transporting drugs but not which kind. Fenner also told officials he was going to be paid $500 after dropping the bag off at an address in Maplewood.

Fenner was charged with five other people after Hennepin County officials recovered over 34 pounds of fentanyl in the county. While the cases aren’t connected, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office says the charges came after efforts by several local law enforcement agencies and teams, including members of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office Violent Offender Task Force, the Anoka-Hennepin Violent Crime Task Force, officers within the Minneapolis, Fridley, and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) police departments, the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Those charged in addition to Fenner are:

Matthew Kenneth Rewald, 28, from Minneapolis.
Pierre Lamont Flowers, 35, from Eden Prairie.
Dejuan White, 27, from Chicago.
Gregory Jerome Collins, 44, from Minneapolis.
Kortney Ann Roe, 43, from Moline, Illinois.

Their cases are still working through the court system.