Minnesota woman receives 12-plus years for role in drug-smuggling ring tied to El Chapo’s cartel

A central Minnesota woman has received a prison term topping 12 years for her role in a smuggling operation that funneled into the Midwest large amounts of fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine supplied by one of the world’s most notorious drug cartels.

Tiffany N. Keomany, 35, of St. Cloud, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Fargo to 12¾ years in prison after pleadiang guilty in July to conspiracy to distribute illicit drugs and international money laundering conspiracy.

Her sentence followed the sentencing earlier this month of Macalla Knott, 32, of St. Cloud, who received a 26-year prison term for leading the operation.

In April, a federal judge handed down a 7½-year sentence to Knott’s father, 53-year-old Jeffrey Robert Knott, for his part in the operation, which spanned from January 2019 until January 2022.

The drugs came from Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, according to prosecutors. Guzman, 67, was sentenced in 2019 to life in prison for leading a multibillion-dollar drug-trafficking enterprise that spread murder and mayhem for more than two decades.

Guzman is held in a supermax federal prison dubbed the “Alcatraz of the Rockies” in Florence, Colo.

Macalla Knott’s group used violence and threats to ensure payments and conceal crimes, according to federal prosecutors. The co-conspirators, all Minnesotans, also used smartphone apps and financial transaction tactics to hide the movements of their ill-gotten proceeds.

Prison sentences also have been handed down to Kayla Marie Schutz, 31, of St. Augusta, 3⅓ years; Demian Hebert, 50, of Bloomington, 14 years; Oliver Louis Dylla, 34, of Avon, 2½ years; James Warren Garner, 24, of Little Falls, seven years; Mary Rose Thompson, 31, of Moorhead, 8⅓ years; Melanie Ann Quick, 30, of St. Cloud, nine years; Joseph Paul Myers Jr., 72, of Elk River, 11 years; Robert Jon Ratka, 42, of Melrose, seven years; Deanna Gerads, 35, of Freeport, 10 years; David Robert Nowlan, 33, of Waite Park; and Robert Blair Gjevre, 62, of Champlin, nine years.

Awaiting sentencing are Tyler Neil Pelzer, 30, of St. Cloud; and Brady Robert Ludescher, 30, who has had various addresses in Minnesota.