On January 13, 2026, police received information that SARAH MARIE STEELE – [DOB REDACTED] would be picking up a large quantity of methamphetamine and cocaine from a male in Minneapolis. Police assembled a surveillance team for STEELE’s vehicle. Police followed STEELE’s vehicle to Minneapolis. STEELE, the driver and lone occupant, parked in a parking lot then got out on foot. STEELE walked to a bus stop and was looking around while on the phone. Police observed STEELE approach a rental vehicle with Wisconsin license plates.
STEELE got into the front passenger seat, and the vehicle drove away. Police kept the vehicle under surveillance. A short time later, the vehicle parked. STEELE exited the vehicle and walked away. STEELE then got into her vehicle and drove away. Police executed a traffic stop at Cretin Avenue and Interstate 94 in St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota. STEELE was ordered to turn off the vehicle, which she did. However, STEELE refused to comply with the directive to exit the vehicle and became verbally confrontational with police.
An officer reached his hand in the open driver’s side window and opened the locked door. Police struggled to remove STEELE from the vehicle as she physically resisted. A narcotic detecting K-9 gave a positive indication on the vehicle. During a pat search of STEELE, an officer felt a large bulge protruding from her waist/groin area. Inside STEELE’s leggings, police located a plastic shopping bag that contained a bag of suspected narcotics. Police also recovered two bindles of suspected narcotics from STEELE’s jacket pocket.
STEELE told police that the drugs were for her personal use so she only has to make one trip. In a search of the vehicle, police located a backpack, which contained paraphernalia consistent with drug sale activity, on the rear seat on the driver’s side of the vehicle. In a purse behind the driver’s seat, police located several bags of suspected narcotics. Following a Miranda advisory, STEELE declined to speak with police. Presumptive testing on the substance recovered from STEELE’s leggings yielded a positive test for methamphetamine with a weight of 381 grams.
Presumptive testing on the substance recovered from one of the bags of narcotics recovered from the purse in the vehicle yielded a positive result for cocaine with a weight of 7 grams. Police recovered approximately 27.5 grams of suspected cocaine from STEELE’s jacket. Police recovered an additional approximately 8.6 grams of suspected cocaine from the vehicle. Police recovered an additional approximately 12.3 grams of suspected methamphetamine from the vehicle.
