{"id":10110,"date":"2026-01-14T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=10110"},"modified":"2026-01-14T05:03:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T11:03:40","slug":"thief-river-falls-77g-meth-found-in-traffic-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/thief-river-falls-77g-meth-found-in-traffic-stop\/","title":{"rendered":"Thief River Falls: 77g Meth Found in Traffic Stop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thief River Falls<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 A Thief River Falls man faces felony drug charges. Authorities say 77.4 grams of meth were found during a traffic stop.<\/p>\n

Matthew Peter Stengrim<\/strong>, 31, is charged in Pennington County District Court. He is charged with first-degree meth possession. He also faces a fifth-degree controlled substance charge.<\/p>\n

He is also charged with obstructing a peace officer and fourth-degree DWI. He was arrested on a Red Lake County warrant, too.<\/p>\n

The Red Lake County case was filed the day before this stop, court records say. The 2026 felony charge involves electronic messages to a child, investigators allege. The report dates to July 2025.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Authorities say Stengrim knew the teenage girl. They say he used Snapchat to send sexual messages. They also allege he sent an explicit video.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Traffic stop details<\/h2>\n

The stop happened around 10:44 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 10, the complaint says. A Minnesota Department of Natural Resources<\/a> officer reported a fast vehicle on 140th Avenue.<\/p>\n

The complaint says the vehicle swerved across the road. Another driver had to move to avoid a crash, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

The officer stopped the vehicle and contacted Stengrim. The complaint says he was crying and acted erratically. Backup arrived from the Minnesota State Patrol<\/a> and the Pennington County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

\"Matthew
Matthew Peter Stengrim<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Search of the vehicle<\/h2>\n

Investigators say Stengrim did not follow commands during the arrest. They say he tensed up and would not stop moving. Officers and Stengrim fell to the ground, the complaint says.<\/p>\n

He was handcuffed and taken to the Pennington County Jail, authorities say. Officers then did an inventory search before towing, the complaint says.<\/p>\n

Investigators reported finding a syringe with liquid near the driver\u2019s seat. They also reported a bag with a scale and suspected meth.<\/p>\n

They also reported suspected mushrooms and a bottle of pills. The complaint says the pills included amphetamine and dextroamphetamine tablets.<\/p>\n

Authorities say a field test was positive for meth. They say the suspected meth weighed 77.4 grams. A field test was also positive for psilocybin, they say.<\/p>\n

They say the mushrooms weighed 21.1 grams. Additional testing is expected by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Interview and history<\/h2>\n

Investigators say Stengrim admitted to using meth the day before. Authorities also reported fresh needle marks on his arm.<\/p>\n

They say he admitted to driving into an oncoming lane. The complaint says a blood or urine warrant was approved. A urine sample was sent for lab testing.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors also listed prior convictions in court records. Those records include past fleeing, burglary, and drug cases.<\/p>\n

State court records can be searched through the Minnesota Judicial Branch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thief River Falls (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 A Thief River Falls man faces felony drug charges. Authorities say 77.4 grams of meth were found during a traffic stop. Matthew Peter Stengrim, 31, is charged in Pennington County District Court. He is charged with first-degree meth possession. He also faces a fifth-degree controlled substance charge. He is also… Continue reading Thief River Falls: 77g Meth Found in Traffic Stop<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[9158,9246,1189,772,883,827,6774,2546,9157,1026,1186,3328,2409,1013,9159,777,9160,9161,824,9162,1222,825,778,1644,1219],"class_list":["post-10110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-77-4-grams","tag-77g","tag-controlled-substance","tag-crime","tag-dwi","tag-falls","tag-first-degree-possession","tag-found","tag-matthew-peter-stengrim","tag-meth","tag-methamphetamine","tag-minnesota-bca","tag-minnesota-dnr","tag-minnesota-state-patrol","tag-obstructing","tag-pennington-county","tag-psilocybin-mushrooms","tag-red-lake-county-warrant","tag-river","tag-snapchat-case","tag-stop","tag-thief","tag-thief-river-falls","tag-traffic","tag-traffic-stop","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10114,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10110\/revisions\/10114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}