Northland overdose deaths fall as fentanyl threat stays steady

Northland overdose deaths have fallen, but the Lake Superior Violent Offender Task Force is still seeing a steady stream of fentanyl and meth cases, a sign that the drug threat has not disappeared so much as changed shape.

Lieutenant Jason Tanski said searches and seizures tied to fentanyl have climbed across Minnesota over the past year to 18 months, but that pattern has not hit the Duluth area and surrounding region in the same way. In the Northland, he said arrests and seizures have stayed fairly consistent over the past couple of years even as overdose deaths have trended downward.

The statewide numbers show why the trend matters. Minnesota recorded 994 drug overdose deaths in 2024, down 26% from 1,338 in 2023. Synthetic-opioid deaths fell 35%, from 942 to 610, and psychostimulant-involved deaths, including methamphetamine, fell 31% to 389. State health officials say hospital and death records do not capture every overdose reversed in the community with naloxone, which means public-safety agencies are still seeing an active crisis even as fatalities improve.

That is why Narcan remains part of the daily routine for officers and first responders in the Northland. The task force does not treat the problem as street-level dealing alone. St. Louis County says the Lake Superior Violent Offender Task Force serves all of Northeast Minnesota and Northwest Wisconsin and focuses on violent crime, illegal firearms, fugitive apprehension and controlled-substance enforcement. Its work is funded primarily through a state violent-crime grant, a Minnesota BCA anti-heroin grant and a federal HIDTA grant.

The drug cases also show how far the problem reaches beyond one city block. In April 2024, federal prosecutors said eight people were indicted in a Chicago-based fentanyl and methamphetamine conspiracy tied to Duluth and the Twin Ports region. Prosecutors said the operation ran from December 2021 through February 2024, and investigators seized large quantities of fentanyl and meth during the probe.

In August 2024, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office said the task force and an emergency-response team seized about 617 grams of methamphetamine, cocaine, psilocybin mushrooms, schedule II pills and nearly an ounce of fentanyl in Hibbing. In January 2026, Duluth police said investigators disrupted another trafficking operation aimed at the Northland, with ties to the Black P Stone street gang out of Harvey, Illinois. Police said investigators had been tracking suspects since May 2023.

For St. Louis County families, the drop in deaths is meaningful. For treatment providers, it is a reminder that reversals, relapses and repeat exposure are still part of the workload. For law enforcement budgets, the message is less encouraging: the danger is still here, and the response still requires county, city, state and federal partners to keep up.