SLP Police Find Guns, Drugs in Apartment Raid

A St. Louis Park man is facing felony drug charges after police say they found methamphetamine, ecstasy, hashish, marijuana and a number of firearms in his apartment.

Matthew Richard Grove, 30, is charged with third-degree drug sales, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine; fourth-degree drug possession, which has a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $100,000 fine; and fifth-degree drug possession, for which the maximum penalty is 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, signed by Hennepin County Deputy Sheriff Kellace McDaniel, officers on the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Violent Offender Task Force executed a search warrant at Grove’s apartment in the 2500 block of Highway 100 South on July 13.

Officers set up surveillance that morning, and saw Grove leave the apartment. Officers entered the apartment just before noon and found 2.08 grams of methamphetamine, 34 ecstasy pills and an additional .19 grams of ecstasy, 4.41 grams of hashish and 2.15 grams of marijuana, according to the complaint.

Officers also found a marijuana grinder, two digital scales, a sifter, a metal tin containing drug residue, a counterfeit currency pen and a black airsoft-style handgun with a holster, case and magazine, the complaint says.

The search warrant also turned up $1,102 in cash, along with magazines for firearms, miscellaneous rifle parts, shotgun shells and firearm rounds and a number of firearms, one of them a .223 rifle equipped with a scope.

Grove’s girlfriend was asleep in the apartment when officers entered, and she told them that the guns and drugs belonged to Grove, according to the complaint.

Grove has a pending Hennepin County case charging him with second-degree drug possession.

Grove is free on a $35,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled for Aug. 22 in Hennepin County District Court.