Drugs, Weapons Seized in Massive North Fargo Bust

A massive haul of drugs and weapons, all taken from a single Fargo home.

Police say this is more than a simple drug bust.

It’s not just that police found more than a dozen different drugs, along with nearly half a dozen weapons.

It’s where they found them, and who they found them with.

“These are criminal people. These are dealers who are selling poison,” says Lt. Shannon Ruziska with the Fargo Police Department.
 
That’s how police are describing 23-year-old John Iten.

He was arrested after police found a variety of drugs in his North Fargo home, including heroin and fentanyl.
 
Ruziska says, “Those are the drugs we do suspect are causing the deaths in our community.”
 
Iten had the drugs in his apartment in the Roosevelt neighborhood, less than one thousand feet from Roosevelt Elementary school.

Iten’s one-year-old child was also in the home.
 
“We cannot and will not tolerate this type of criminal activity and behavior,” says Fargo Police Chief David Todd.
 
Iten wasn’t just holding drugs.

Police seized five weapons, including an AK-47.

The guns were loaded.

Police say, fortunately, he was arrested without incident, but that was far from a guarantee.
 
“We could have had a very bad encounter,” admits Ruziska.
 
Investigators are looking to the public to help keep the streets clean here in Fargo.

They’re not saying how they found out about this latest stash of drugs, but they’re asking you that if you see something suspicious, let someone know.
 
Ruziska asks, “When you see a dozen cars show up in a day for five minute visits or less, that’s a red flag, and call us.”
 
Police Chief David Todd says the bust signals a new direction in the fight against drugs that have led to a spike in overdose deaths in the metro.
 
Todd explains, “To show we’ve made a shift in our focus this year to really go after the sources bringing heroin and meth into our community.”
 
“We’re gonna be able to try to follow them to their sources and hopefully find a common source that’s bringing in heroin and other sources to stop that trade from coming here,” Ruziska adds.
 
Iten faces a long list of drug and weapons charges, along with a charge for having counterfeit money.

He’ll face stiffer charges than normal because his child was in the home and he was within 1000 feet of a school.