Steven Mitchell Gant, 38, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, is headed to federal prison for 90 months after admitting to flooding the White Earth Indian Reservation with heroin. The sentence, handed down by Senior Judge Michael J. Davis in U.S. District Court, marks the end of a swift but damning case built on Gant’s own guilty plea and a cross-jurisdictional law enforcement sweep.
Gant pleaded guilty on January 16, 2019, to one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin. According to court documents, from October 2017 through February 20, 2018, he partnered with an accomplice to traffic heroin obtained from a supplier in Texas. The drugs were hauled into Minnesota, where Gant took charge of distribution—making roughly 25 separate trips to the White Earth Reservation to sell the poison.
The reservation, already ravaged by opioid abuse, became a target zone for Gant’s operation. Each run fed an epidemic that has strained tribal resources and law enforcement. His actions didn’t just violate federal law—they tore at the fabric of a vulnerable community where addiction and crime often spiral hand in hand.
The investigation that brought Gant down was led by the FBI’s Headwaters Safe Trails Task Force, working alongside the West Central Minnesota Drug & Violent Crimes Task Force, the White Earth Police Department, and the Becker County Sheriff’s Office. Surveillance, informant testimony, and transaction records built a case that left no room for denial.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Deidre Y. Aanstad prosecuted the case with the grim efficiency that defines the DOJ’s crackdown on reservation-based drug networks. Gant’s 90-month sentence is followed by five years of supervised release—a watchful eye from the justice system long after he walks out of prison.
Steven Mitchell Gant now begins his time in federal custody, a fall from the shadows of the underground drug trade into the cold light of consequence. His name joins a growing list of traffickers exploiting sovereign tribal lands—only now, he’s a warning etched in court records and prison time.
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Key Facts
- State: Minnesota
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking
- Source: Official Source ↗
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