Two arrested after high-speed chase

Published 6:36 pm Saturday, February 11, 2012

A high-speed car chase led Albert Lea police to a stolen vehicle and eventually two drug arrests.

An officer noticed a suspicious pickup near Collins Auto Repair on East Main Street at 11:49 p.m. Wednesday. When the officer pursued the truck, it fled and was reportedly traveling at 89 mph going east on Main Street.

The blue Dodge four-door pickup was identified as stolen from Brooklyn Center. The officer followed it through a residential area south of East Main Street and along railroad tracks before it was found abandoned in a hayfield near 2016 SE Marshall St.

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Officer tracked Robert James Blake, 27, of Brooklyn Center, and Rachel Rae Foster, 23, of Albert Lea, to the Country Inn & Suites hotel. They were arrested; during questioning it became apparent they were in the city to purchase drugs, according to the Albert Lea Police Department.

An undercover police officer was offered methamphetamine in exchange for $300 by Anthony Lee Weber, 29, of Glenville, and Janna Lynn Long, 29, of Albert Lea, at 1427 Academy Ave.

The officer identified himself and arrested both. A search warrant was obtained at 5:13 a.m. Thursday for the home. A press release from the police department anticipated both Long and Weber could be charged with second-degree drugs with intent to sell methamphetamine, third-degree possession of methamphetamine and fifth-degree possession of Vicodin, a controlled prescription painkiller. It classified by the FDA as a Schedule III drug, which means it has medicinal value but has potential for abuse.

The Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office and Minnesota State Patrol assisted.