Source: Office of United States Attorneys
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A St. Paul man was sentenced to 120 months imprisonment followed by 5 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to his part in a fentanyl distribution conspiracy, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson.
According to court documents, between August 2022 through December 2023, Quijuan Hosea Bankhead, 31, and others conspired to distribute fentanyl in the Twin Cities and throughout Minnesota. To accomplish their scheme, several of the co-defendants traveled to Phoenix to obtain fentanyl pills from suppliers, hid the pills inside stuffed animals, and then mailed them to addresses in and around the Twin Cities. Law enforcement in Dakota, Ramsey, and Washington counties became aware of the trafficking and initiated a joint investigation, which resulted in the seizure of six packages containing over 30,000 grams of fentanyl pills.
Bankhead was sentenced on May 29, 2025, in U.S District Court before Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan.
“Bankhead and his network smuggled deadly fentanyl into Minnesota and had the gall to hide this poison inside of children’s toys—stuffed animals,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson. “Bankhead will now serve a well-deserved decade in federal prison.”
This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations, the Dakota County Drug Task Force, the Washington County Drug Task Force, and the Ramsey County Violent Crime Enforcement Team.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Campbell Warner prosecuted the case.