Two sentenced in connection with St. Paul drug trafficking conspiracy

Two people convicted in connection with a drug trafficking and kidnapping conspiracy in St. Paul, Minnesota, have been sentenced to prison.

Court documents show Kendra Johnson was sentenced to more than 5 years in prison, followed by four years of supervised release, and Erling Holdahl was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.

Holdahl and Johnson both pleaded guilty last year to one count each of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. They are two of 11 people who were associated with a Mexican drug trafficking organization. 

Between July 2023 and January 2025, leaders arranged for large quantities of methamphetamine to be delivered to the Twin Cities area, where it was broken down into smaller parcels to sell.

In January 2025, someone owed a leader a "substantial amount of money" that they couldn't pay for. Holdahl and three others lured the person who owed money to a location in St. Paul, chained them to a pole and held them against their will, the justice department said.

When talking with police, Holdahl admitted that he had been in contact with someone in Mexico named Rana, who alleged that Holdahl owed him $10,000, leading Holdahl to deal drugs sent to his shop to pay off the debt. Holdahl told police that "he was being forced into stuff he didn't want to be involved in," according to charging documents. 

Holdahl told police that six guys wearing masks and armed with "machine guns" arrived in a minivan and brought the victim to the basement. Holdahl claims he wasn't there when the group arrived, but a friend of his was, charging documents say. 

Holdahl claims that he and his codefendant, Johnson, didn't return to the shop until 9 or 10 p.m. that night, when they discovered the victim tied up in the basement. Charging documents say Holdahl wasn't able to identify any of the six men who brought the victim to the shop besides his other codefendant, Richar Mujica. 

A surveillance camera near the Payne Avenue address showed several men coming and going from the shop at various times. Analysis of the surveillance camera footage did not show six different men wearing masks or carrying "machine guns" as Holdahl claimed, charging documents say.

Mujica is scheduled to be sentenced on July 29.