High-speed car chase leads to drug arrests and recovery of stolen vehicle

Published 9:55 am Thursday, February 9, 2012

A high-speed car chase led Albert Lea police to a stolen vehicle and eventually two drug arrests.

An officer noticed a suspicious pickup near Collins Auto Repair on East Main Street at 11:49 p.m. Wednesday. When the officer pursued the truck, it fled and was reportedly traveling at 89 mph going east on Main Street.

The blue Dodge four-door pickup was identified as stolen from Brooklyn Center. The officer followed it through a residential area south of East Main Street and along railroad tracks before it was found abandoned in a hayfield near 2016 SE Marshall St.

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Officer tracked Robert James Blake, 27, of Brooklyn Center, and Rachel Rae Foster, 23, of Albert Lea, to the Country Inn & Suites hotel. They were arrested; during questioning it became apparent they were in the city to purchase drugs, according to the Albert Lea Police Department.

Anthony Lee Weber

Janna Lynn Long

An undercover police officer was offered methamphetamine in exchange for $300 by Anthony Lee Weber, 29, of Glenville, and Janna Lynn Long, 29, of Albert Lea, at 1427 Academy Ave.

The officer identified himself and arrested both. A search warrant was obtained at 5:13 a.m. Thursday for the home. A press release from the police department anticipated both Long and Weber could be charged with second-degree drugs with intent to sell methamphetamine, third-degree possession of methamphetamine and fifth-degree possession of Vicodin, a controlled prescription painkiller. It classified by the FDA as a Schedule III drug, which means it has medicinal value but has potential for abuse.

The Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office and Minnesota State Patrol assisted.