Jury Finds St. Paul Man Guilty of Large Scale Pot Trafficking

ST. PAUL (WJON News) -- A Saint Paul man was found guilty by a federal jury of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and possession with the intent to distribute marijuana.

Forty-year-old Danny Gehl, Jr was convicted on Wednesday of one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and one count of possession with the intent to distribute marijuana.

From 2016 through June 2021, Gehl, Jr., along with co-conspirators Douglas Finch, David Gehl, Frank Kittleson, Patrick Maykoski and Daniel Thomas conspired to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana.

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The defendants and others were part of a drug trafficking operation (DTO) that shipped marijuana from California to Minnesota. Members of the DTO routinely sent shipping crates from a warehouse in St. Paul to a warehouse in North Highlands, California. The DTO members would fly from Minnesota to California to buy the marijuana, fill the crates with marijuana and then load them on a delivery truck for shipment back to Minnesota. Once the shipment arrived in Minnesota, the DTO members unpacked the crates, repackaged the marijuana, and placed the marijuana in large garbage bags and boxes for distribution. Members of the DTO then transported the marijuana from the Minnesota warehouse to various locations for storage and packaging pending distribution to customers.