By Dan Nienaber

ST PETER — One of two men arrested in a St. Peter crack cocaine sting recently had received a stayed sentence in June for a drug conviction from a similar sting and an assault in Mankato earlier this year.

In both stings, 23-year-old Glenn Steveon Powell was arrested by agents with the Minnesota River Valley Drug Task Force. He appeared in Nicollet County District Court last week for nine felony charges resulting from two alleged drug deals arranged by an informant.

The informant was sent to Powell’s St. Peter apartment in the 700 block of Ronell Street the first time on Nov. 3. The informant was wearing a wire and had arranged to buy $190 worth of crack cocaine, the criminal complaint said. A small bag with about 2 grams of cocaine was turned over to task force agents afterward.

A second man, 23-year-old Harold Bostic of Chicago, also was in the apartment, the informant told investigators.

A second buy was set up for Nov. 11 at the same location. This time the informant set up the deal to buy $300 worth of cocaine with Powell, the complaint said. But it was Bostic who allegedly brought the 3 grams of suspected crack out to the informant, who was waiting in a vehicle in the parking lot.

Agents reported finding a scale with white residue in the apartment when it was searched Nov. 13. Both men were arrested and appeared in court Monday. Bail was set at $200,000 for Powell and $150,000 for Bostic, court records said.

Powell pleaded guilty to a felony third-degree drug sales charge in Blue Earth County District Court on May 6. He later received a stayed sentence with the conditions he serve 120 days in jail, remain law-abiding, obtain employment and refrain from using alcohol and other drugs.

That sentence resulted from a March 18 sting where Powell was arrested with two other men delivering drugs to an informant at Park Lane Liquors in Mankato. Cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana and cash were found in a Chevy Suburban the men were traveling in, that complaint said.

After Powell posted a $60,000 bond for his release from jail for the March 18 arrest, he was arrested again March 29 after he drove his car into a group of people fighting on a grassy area in the River Hills Mall parking lot.

He pleaded guilty to a second-degree assault charge for that incident. In a plea agreement that included the drug charge, a 27-month prison sentence was stayed for five years, according to court records.