Man convicted of fentanyl trafficking two years after SWAT raid in Red River Valley – InForum

FARGO – One of the men arrested during one of several raids conducted during a joint multi-agency effort to target people selling fentanyl pills in the community after

a peak in overdoses in August 2022

was sentenced to ten years in prison on Tuesday afternoon.

Shermaine Lewis was one of three men taken into custody after the Red River Valley SWAT team served a search warrant at a south Fargo apartment on Oct. 25, 2022. Agents found large quantities of fentanyl pills, cocaine, marijuana and prescription drugs, along with several weapons and more than $21,000 in cash during the search.

Lewis and the two other men, Rickey Walker and Aaron Bennett,

were first charged in state court

with one felony count each of conspiracy to possess with intent to manufacture or deliver opiates.

In March 2023, Lewis was federally indicted on drug trafficking conspiracy charges along with another man, Ian Shack. Shack also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to ten years in prison earlier this year.

Lewis pleaded guilty in June. At sentencing, Chief Judge Peter Welte noted that the offense level calculation for Lewis’ crime was higher due to his possession of three handguns, including one with its serial number obliterated.

Welte said he was concerned about Lewis’ affinity for guns, and added details about an open case against Lewis in Ramsey County, Minnesota. That case stemmed from a 2021 traffic stop in which Lewis allegedly fled St. Paul police and disposed of a custom-made 9mm polymer handgun loaded with a 30-round magazine while officers were searching for him. A K9 later located the weapon and DNA analysis matched it to Lewis, Welte said.

Lewis, who turns 25 in a few days and is originally from Mississippi, told the court he was in the “wrong place at the wrong time” when he was arrested. a bad person and that he hoped to spend time with his 3-year-old son before he grew up.

Welte sentenced Lewis to the mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and said he would leave it to the Bureau of Prisons to calculate how much credit Lewis would receive for time already served. Lewis’ attorney Luke Heck had previously asked the judge to give Lewis credit for the more than two years he had been in custody, starting with the 2022 arrest, instead of allowing time credit to begin with the 2023 federal charge.

One of the other men Lewis was arrested with in Fargo was also charged federally late last year. Bennett pleaded guilty to trafficking fentanyl in July and will be sentenced later this month. The third man, Walker, pleaded guilty to the state charges against him in May 2023 and was sentenced to five years in prison. State Department of Corrections records show he was released on parole in July.