A man charged in connection with a drug trafficking and kidnapping conspiracy in St. Paul, Minnesota, pleaded guilty on Tuesday.

Court documents show Erling Holdahl pleaded guilty to one federal count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. He was one of 11 people who were associated with a Mexican drug trafficking organization.

Between July 2023 and January 2025, leaders arranged for large quantities of methamphetamine to be delivered to the Twin Cities area, where it was broken down into smaller parcels to sell.

In January, someone owed a leader a "substantial amount of money" that they couldn't pay for. Holdahl and three others lured the person who owed money to a location in St. Paul, chained them to a pole and held them against their will, the justice department sa

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