Peter George Noe, 26,

goes on trial Monday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

Noe is charged with conspiracy to distribute and sell more than 500 grams of the highly-addictive methamphetamine and 220 pounds of marijuana, according to the indictment.

The federal charges were the results of a grand jury indictment in late-January after two major drug trafficking operations were closed down in Mower County.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Paulsen will prosecute the case, beginning 9 a.m. Monday in a Minneapolis courtroom.

"I have my full-faith and trust in Mr. Paulsen," Mower County Attorney Patrick W. Flanagan said. "He's very meticulous about all his cases."

The Noe case -- the first involving federal charges being filed against defendants in drug cases locally -- is being watched closely in Mower County.

"A lot of hard work and serious investigation work went into these cases by many agencies," Mower County Sheriff Terese Amazi said. "This is a significant milestone for us. The penalties, if found guilty on federal charges, are much more severe and therefore, those found guilty will be sent away for a long, long time."

Also charged in the original indictment were Timothy James Schultz, Terry Lynn Bauman, Michael Arthur "Mack" Clennon and Amy Marie "Mom" Placek.

Prosecution of their cases will follow Noe's.

When the six were arrested, local authorities celebrated taking one of the largest methamphetamine distribution's rings off the streets.

Flanagan said the successful investigation and arrests have decimated Noe's trafficking operation.

"Our investigation is ongoing," he said. "We have already seen it make a large effect on the operation. There may be a few people out there from (Noe's) operation, but there aren't many. Those that are out there are on our radar screen."

Noe's roots were Riverside, Calif., and the Inland Empire, a gang. He made no secret about his affiliation with the IE organization and appeared on KAAL television last summer to discuss the gang.

Noe and his associates moved to Lyle and set up operations that law enforcement officials said were to sell methamphetamine and marijuana.

Despite spending 18 months in prison on drug and gun possession charges, the ring continued to operate and when Noe was released, he reassumed his leadership role, authorities said.

Local law enforcement officers will be among those testifying at Noe's trial. If he is found guilty and sent to prison, it will be for a sentence measured in years; not months.

On Jan. 17, local, state and federal officers executed five search warrants at three residences in Austin and one each in Lyle and Rochester.

The 50 agents and canine units were concluding a lengthy investigation that began in January 2000.

The Mower County Attorney

told a City Pages reporter last month that Noe and Schultz, a senior lieutenant in the organization, were responsible for importing methamphetamine from California to Mower County.

"These two guys were really the first big wave," Flanagan told the City Pages reporter. "They roped a lot of kids into their deal and they ran a very well-organized business."

On May 22, Flanagan participated in a Mower County Methamphetamine Task Force public forum.

Flanagan told the audience he became interested in fighting the drug ring when he first began work as a criminal defense attorney.

"What I saw was the leaders of these gangs or drug rings were never caught. It was always their underlings," Flanagan said.

When he was hired as an Assistant Mower County Attorney and then elected Mower County Attorney, his interest intensified. That was the same time Noe and Bauman moved across the Iowa border into tiny Lyle and Flanagan's aggressive nature soon attracted the ring's attention.

"There would be somebody sitting outside my house when I came home at night," he said.

Flanagan went to Amazi, a former undercover narcotics investigator early in her career.

"I wanted to get educated on meth," he said.

What he learned startled him.

"A friend told me that meth was a rat that eats your brain and that's what I learned it does," he said.

He also learned the source.

"It's produced in labs in Mexico and then smuggled across the border into the United States," he said. "A lot of it surfaced in the farm fields of California. People began to manufacture it on their own, but most of it was being imported from Mexico and then brought back to the Midwest by motorcycle gangs who hid it in the crankcases of their cycles."

"Now, it's all over the Midwest and it's catching on like wildfire," he said.

Lee Bonorden can be contacted at 434-2232 or by e-mail at :mailto:lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com