A 19-year-old man charged with 17 drug-related felonies pleaded not guilty to all charges in Pennington County District Court Thursday.
Christopher Michael Seglem, 19, was a drug informant with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension last year when he allegedly duped agents by staging drug buys in the Thief River Falls area and then splitting thousands of dollars worth of drug-buy money with his co-conspirators, according to the criminal complaint filed in court against Seglem.
Seglem was charged with 10 controlled substance crimes in the first degree, one controlled substance crime in the second degree and six theft crimes in March.
The charges allege Seglem tricked the BCA out of $6,600 in drug-buy money and conspired with several individuals to stage drug buys, unbeknownst to BCA agents, between September and December 2014, according to the complaint signed by BCA agent Ron Woolever.
The complaint alleges Seglem would buy hard candy from a Thief River Falls shop and mix it with a small quantity of methamphetamine. In this way, the mixture would be heavier-and more expensive-and would test positive for methamphetamine when analyzed at a crime laboratory.
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The complaint says Seglem would give the mixture to a co-conspirator and instruct the co-conspirator they were going to stage a drug buy, with Seglem as the buyer and the co-conspirator as the seller.
Seglem allegedly told his co-conspirators that he was buying the drugs for an individual who was "paranoid" about how much the drugs would cost and how the drug sale would play out, the complaint says. Seglem allegedly told them the buyer would be listening to the drug transaction through Seglem's phone, the complaint says.
According to the complaint, Seglem would sometimes have a co-conspirator send Seglem text messages to make it appear they were planning a legitimate drug buy.
The complaint alleges Seglem would then meet with law enforcement officers and tell them he could buy so many grams of methamphetamine off a seller. The agents would then give Seglem the buy money and a transmitter, which the agents would use to listen in on the drug transaction, according to the complaint.
The complaint says Seglem would then carry out the false drug buy, sometimes with the co-conspirator pretending to be someone Seglem did not like.
After giving the purported drugs-but mostly candy-to the BCA, Seglem allegedly would then divvy up the buy money with his co-conspirators, the complaint alleges.
During one of the staged buys, the BCA gave Seglem $1,200 to buy 14 grams of methamphetamine, the complaint says. Though Seglem told agents he would buy the drugs from a Dustin Senum, he instead met with two unidentified juveniles with whom he had previously arranged the false sale.
The complaint alleges Seglem bought the candy sprinkled with meth from the juveniles, told law enforcement he had bought 14 grams of meth from Senum and then divvied up the $1,200 with the two juveniles, the complaint says.
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Senum had nothing to do with the drug transaction, according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges Seglem admitted to staging the drug-buys. One of the unidentified juvenile conspirators told agents Seglem would stage the transactions because it was "easy money," according to the complaint.
Seglem's next court hearing is at 9 a.m. Aug. 24.
