Wheelchair-user cop helps bust drug ring

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports about a sting operation there using an undercover cop who uses a power wheelchair to gain the trust of drug dealers and then bust them.

For the most part, the downtown St. Paul drug dealers were an accommodating bunch, eager to win the trust of the man in the wheelchair buying everything: marijuana, crack cocaine, muscle relaxers.

Turns out, though, the man in the electric wheelchair was not to be trusted -- from the dealers' point of view, at least.

For a second straight year, St. Paul police have conducted a three-month crackdown on downtown dealing -- this time with an undercover operation targeting dealers working the streets near drop-in centers for the poor.

The undercover officer helped build cases resulting in criminal charges against 108 people, Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner said at a news conference July 28.