Hanska man sentenced for hiding meth in deputy’s squad car

A Hanska man, Dustin Michael Thompson, age 37, was sentenced in Redwood County Court for felony drug possession after it was discovered he had hidden methamphetamine in a deputy’s squad car.

According to court records, on Jan. 9, 2022, a Redwood County deputy was cleaning a squad car and found a black magnetic box in the back seat, between the door and the cage partition. A small bag in the box contained a crystal-like substance that turned out to  be meth.

Deputies reviewed squad video. They found that five days earlier, Thompson had been in the back of the squad car being transferred to the Redwood County / Brown County line as part of a custody transfer. Thompson was observed on video removing a matching black magnetic box from his clothing and hiding it in the area where it was found.

On Nov. 27, Thompson was sentenced to the correctional facility in St. Cloud for 12 months, stayed fro three years, 205 days local confinement, three years supervised probation, and fines and fees of $210.