Drug task force agents have made a potentially major arrest in the ongoing war on meth.

The arrestee, a 47-year-old St. Paul man, "was known to be supplying western MN with large amounts of methamphetamine," according to the Willmar-based CEE (cooperative enforcement effort) VI Drug & Gang Task Force. 

A release from the task force says the suspect was taken into custody on Thursday. After the arrest, agents executed a narcotics search warrant at his home and found "multiple pounds of methamphetamine."

According to the release, the as-yet unidentified suspect had sold agents over a pound of meth in St. Cloud.

He's currently being held in the Stearns County jail for first-degree sales and possession of methamphetamine. 

The case is still under investigation. 

This week's arrest follows an announcement earlier this month that seizures of drugs in Minnesota increased in 2019, with over 1700 pounds of meth being claimed by law enforcement. 

That represents a 49 percent increase over the amount of meth seized the year before; additionally, it marked 12 straight years of increasing meth seizures in Minnesota. 

Last year, a high-ranking Department of Human Services official told the Star Tribune that the state is "in a crisis" over the drug.

The paper noted that Mexican cartels have "flooded" Minnesota with meth that's "cheaper and purer than ever before," and that they've turned the state into a "distribution hub for the Upper Midwest."