DULUTH, Minn. – Officers monitoring live-feed surveillance cameras in “high crime areas,” catch two meth sales, Duluth Police say.
Duluth Police Officers have caught meth sales in progress while monitoring live-feed surveillance cameras, according to court records from separate cases. While the cases are not reported to be related, they involved the alleged sale or possession of methamphetamines.
In the first case from Aug. 1, a Duluth officer was monitoring a “live Milestone cameras” system at “6th Avenue E and 4th Street” near the Speedway gas station. Milestone is a surveillance footage software company that offers camera systems integrated with capabilities such as facial and license plate recognition, according to their website.
The officer alleged in the complaint that he saw two men walk towards a van that was parked at one of the gas pumps.
Cameras allowed the officer to reportedly witness the man in the passenger seat, later identified as Steven Robert Martin Sr, 40, “pull a Ziplock style bag from his pants pocket which appeared to have a white substance inside of it.” The officer claimed Martin “appeared to pull some of the substance from the bag and then appeared to lean down and set it near the center console area.”
A short time after leaving the gas station Martin was pulled over by the same officer who was monitoring the cameras. He reportedly admitted that there were drugs in the car, and the officer found roughly 26 grams (“with packaging”) of a substance that field-tested positive for meth, according to the complaint.
Martin is charged with first-degree sale of meth, which carries a maximum possible sentence of 30 years in prison.
Arrest near Central Hillside Park
In another case from July 13, a Duluth officer monitoring cameras at “East Third Street and North First Avenue East,” reportedly saw a drug sale involving two females and a male at the adjacent Hillside Park. The officer claimed that at around 1:40 a.m., Cheyenne Dawn Ammesmaki, 31, “was holding a plastic bag and scooping a substance from her bag into another person’s plastic bag.”
The ‘other person’ was identified as Amanda Kay Ammesmaki, 33, who is seen reportedly handing Cheyenne “several dollar bills” before walking away with the male. Amanda and the male were stopped by police and questioned about what the officer saw on video. While initially denying having drugs, the male pulled a small plastic baggie from his pocket that “looked consistent with the plastic bag that [Amanda] was holding on the video,” the officer claimed.
The bag contained .21 grams of a substance that field-tested positive for methamphetamine, according to the complaint. Amanda confirmed the substance was meth and claimed that she paid $7.00.
Cheyenne Ammesmaki is charged with second-degree sale of meth in a park zone, which has a maximum possible sentence of 25 years in prison. Amanda Ammesmaki is charged with third-degree meth possession in a park zone, which has a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison.
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