Carlton County women face drug charges

Two Carlton County women are facing seven felony drug counts after a traffic stop in southwestern Minnesota earlier this month revealed the pair was traveling with 50 pounds of marijuana and marijuana wax used in vaping, police reported. Asia Ann Gobel, 18, of Moose Lake and Tanisha Rae Martineau, 20, of Cloquet will face charges in district court in Cottonwood County in early April on second-degree drug charges.

According to a Windom police officer, a car Gobel was driving had only its daytime running lights on while it was snowing in the city of Windom around 11 a.m. on March 1. The officer said he also noticed that the driver was tailgating a truck and switching lanes without using a signal on Minnesota Highway 60. He pulled the white Altima over and approached the car on the passenger side. The officer said he smelled marijuana and, despite denials that there were drugs in the vehicle, forced Gobel and Marineau out of the car. The officer searched the vehicle and found in a purse what later proved to be nearly 3 grams of cocaine. The trunk, police said, contained 25 pounds of raw marijuana and 25 pounds of marijuana wax used in vape pens. The two women had a combined $1,600 in cash in their purses.

Gobel told the officer that the pair was returning from a trip to Las Vegas, where they visited family.

After they were arrested, Martineau told an investigator that she knew about the marijuana in the trunk because she and Gobel had discussed it. She said Gobel got the drugs from a man she met in Vegas and they were going to deliver it to the same man in Duluth.

Windom is located on Highway 60 between Worthington and Mankato in southern Minnesota. Gobel is expected in court there on April 5, on four felony counts. Martineau is scheduled to appear April 9 on three felony counts. Both women posted bail and were released from custody, court records show.