Large drug bust at Wien truck stop

The Marathon County Sheriff’s Department on July 23 arrested a 36-year-old Minneapolis man in a controlled buy of a half pound of methamphetamine at the CENEX truck stop in the town of Wien, according to an incident report.

The report states officers from the Central Wisconsin Narcotics Task Force and sheriff’s department arrested Nhia Thao after officers seized 234.7 grams of methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia and other items from his car.

Narcotics agents promised to pay Thao $3,500 for the drugs.

Besides Thao, there were two other passengers in Tao’s car, a black Nissan. No contraband was located on any of the suspects and they were not arrested, but their cell phones were seized for evidence. The pair told police that they had no idea they were part of a drug delivery. They showed up in the Edgar area after going to the Ho-Chunk casino in Black River Falls, they said.

Thao claimed that he received the drugs from one of the passengers and claimed it was not fair that the passenger was not arrested. He admitted to police he had sold and delivered methamphetamine to various people over the past four to five years.

A search of Thao’s car turned up a drug pipe with methamphetamine residue, .22 caliber bullets, steel knuckles and two cell phones.

Thirteen police officers worked on the drug arrest.