St. Louis Park Woman Charged with Felony Meth Possession

A St. Louis Park woman is facing serious drug charges after police say they found a large quantity of methamphetamine in her purse at a Bloomington hotel.

Amber Rose Larson, 35, is charged with first-degree drug possession, a felony with a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The charge carries a mandatory minimum penalty of a $300,000 fine.

Bloomington police were called to the Ramada Inn on American Boulevard East just after 5:30 a.m. Nov. 11 when hotel employees asked them to evict the excessively noisy occupants of a room, according to the criminal complaint, signed by Bloomington Police Detective Thomas Maloney.

As officers were evicting that room’s occupants, they spotted a man in the hallway whom hotel security said was part of the group in the room that was being cleared. Officers asked the man to stop, but he ran into a different room and slammed the door.

Because the hotel had also received noise complaints about that room, hotel employees asked police to evict those occupants as well.

Police knocked on the room’s door, and the same man whom they had seen in the hallway answered. Officers smelled burnt marijuana coming from the room and saw marijuana, a blowtorch-style lighter commonly used to light glass pipes, and a glass pipe containing suspected methamphetamine residue, according to the complaint.

While the man was being searched, police spotted Larson in the room and asked her for identification. She agreed to let them search her purse, where they found a bag of marijuana and several bags of methamphetamine, the complaint says.

The methamphetamine tested positive and weighed 37.31 grams, according to the complaint.

Larson has been released from custody on a $7,500 bond. Her next hearing is scheduled Dec. 13 in Hennepin County District Court.