(Photo: US Department of Justice)
The brothers are said to have targeted three reservations. (Photo: US Department of Justice)
Two Detroit men have been convicted of federal drug distribution charges for their leadership of a narcotics ring prosecutors say targeted several Native American reservations in North Dakota.
Federal jurors in June convicted Baquan and Darius Sledge of continuing a criminal enterprise and conspiracy to distribute and possess a controlled substance. The pair ran a ring prosecutors say enlisted locals to help distribute and stash oxycodone. A lack of law enforcement and money from North Dakota's oil boom is said to have lured them to the reservation.
Baquan and Darius Sledge were convicted in connection with leading the narco enterprise. (Photo: U.S. Department of Justice)
Two dozen others were charged in the case, known as Operation Blue Prairie. At least three, in addition to the Sledges, are from Detroit.
A Detroit-to-Dakota opioid pipeline has ravaged Bismarck and the Fort Berthold Indian reservation 100 miles to its northeast, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported last fall. In 2020, there were reportedly 100-plus overdoses and 10 deaths on the sparsely populated reservation, and 74 overdoses and eight deaths in Bismarck.
Detroit men have gained a foothold in the reservation by dating and moving in with native women, a DEA agent told the paper. Half of the suspects charged in Blue Prairie are women.
