Hibbing traffic stop leads to cocaine, stolen gun investigation, charges filed

A traffic stop on Spudville Road in Hibbing quickly widened into a drug-and-gun case after deputies and police say they found cocaine in a vehicle, then uncovered more drugs and a stolen handgun at a nearby home.

St. Louis County authorities say members of the Lake Superior Violent Offender Task Force and the Hibbing Police Department stopped Michael Lemar Fitzpatrick’s vehicle in the 11400 block of Spudville Road about 7:30 p.m. on May 1. Investigators say they found about 28 grams of cocaine inside the car. About an hour and 20 minutes later, around 8:50 p.m., officers executed a search warrant at Fitzpatrick’s Hibbing residence and say they recovered another 14 grams of cocaine, more than 500 Schedule 2 and Schedule 4 narcotics, and a stolen handgun.

Fitzpatrick, born Jan. 29, 1978, was arraigned May 5 in St. Louis County District Court in Hibbing and released on electronic monitoring. He is facing first-degree sale cocaine and first-degree sale of Adderall charges, a sign prosecutors are treating the case as a trafficking investigation rather than a simple possession stop. Under Minnesota law, first-degree controlled-substance sale includes selling 17 grams or more of a mixture containing cocaine within 90 days, and the charge can also apply at 10 grams or more when a firearm is possessed, displayed, threatened with or used, or when two aggravating factors are present. Minnesota law classifies amphetamine as a Schedule II controlled substance, which is relevant to the Adderall allegation.

The seizure of a stolen firearm alongside a large amount of cocaine and pills raises concerns that reach beyond one arrest. Cases like this can point to a broader supply chain moving through Hibbing and surrounding neighborhoods, where illegal guns and diverted prescription drugs can drive violence, theft and addiction risk. The search warrant also suggests investigators may still be working to determine where the drugs came from and whether other people were involved.

The case was handled by the Lake Superior Violent Offender Task Force, a multiagency unit that serves northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin. St. Louis County says the task force includes the sheriff’s office, the police departments in Duluth, Hibbing, Virginia and Superior, along with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Minnesota National Guard Counter Drug Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations. The unit focuses on violent crime, illegal firearms, fugitive apprehension and controlled-substance enforcement, an emphasis that fits the way this Hibbing stop escalated from a traffic check into a trafficking and weapons case.