A Minneapolis man is charged with an aggravated first-degree drug crime involving a firearm and illegal gun possession after Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies searching a north Minneapolis home found more than 600 grams of cocaine and a loaded handgun, according to a criminal complaint.
Rhamal Antonio Powell, 47, faces a felony count of aggravated first-degree controlled substance crime and firearm, which alleges possession of 600 grams or more of cocaine, and a felony count of possessing a firearm or ammunition after a conviction for a crime of violence. The original complaint was issued Oct. 14 in Hennepin County District Court, and an amended complaint issued Oct. 15 brought the current drug charge. Bail was set at $1 million.
According to the complaint, deputies served a search warrant Oct. 13 at a home on the 2600 block of Newton Avenue North as part of a narcotics investigation. As they announced themselves at the front door, deputies saw Powell run from the living room toward the back of the house. He was arrested on the basement stairs.
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Deputies found a loaded Glock 9mm handgun, with a round in the chamber, on top of ductwork near the basement stairs, the complaint says. In the living room they found a Pyrex measuring cup holding what appeared to be cocaine being cooked into crack, and a shoebox holding large chunks of what appeared to be a broken-up kilo brick of cocaine, along with scissors, scooping cups and a bag of about 60 grams of cocaine packaged for sale. The substance in the shoebox field-tested positive for cocaine and weighed about 614 grams, according to the complaint.
Deputies also found $3,844 in a pair of men’s sweatpants. The bag that held the measuring cup also held prescription bottles bearing Powell’s name and electronic home monitoring equipment, and he was the only person in the home on monitoring, the complaint says. People living there told deputies Powell slept on the living room couch and that the items in the room were his.
The complaint lists prior convictions for murder and a drug crime in 2004 in Cook County, Illinois, first-degree burglary in 2008 and fifth-degree drug possession in 2007. It says Powell was on release conditions in three pending Hennepin County felony cases: fleeing police in a motor vehicle and two first-degree drug possession cases.
The amended complaint lists a minimum sentence of 86 months on the drug count and five years on the gun count.
