Christopher Levon Pinkard, 31, of Inkster, Mich., Ariel Anita Howell, 22, of Flint, Mich., and Niko Wardell Harrell, 29, of Romulus, Mich., are each charged in district court in Ward County with Class B felony intent to deliver a Schedule II opiate on Tuesday.

All three were scheduled to make an initial appearance on Wednesday before Judge Todd Cresap.

At the initial appearance for Howell, Ward County Deputy State’s Attorney Todd Schwarz told the judge that the three had been found to be in possession of 850 tablets labeled as though they were oxycodone tablets. However, Schwarz said they also appear to be the type of pills that have turned out to be fentanyl in other cases. Schwarz said that Howell has little criminal record but her two co-defendants have been doing business in the area for quite some time and the ring they are involved with has been linked to drug overdoses on a reservation and to at least one overdose death on a reservation. A probable cause affidavit in the case said a member of the MHA Task Force on the Fort Berthold Reservation indicated that the pills sold by the ring have been a “huge contributor to the opioid epidemic in that area.”

According to the affidavit, the trio was arrested after the Ward County Narcotics Task Force obtained a search warrant for a room at the Sierra Inn in Minot. The street value of the pills seized is about $51,000. Authorities also found $2,911 in U.S. currency, five cell phones and a blue marijuana bag.

Minot has also had a sharp increase in overdoses and overdose deaths this year, most linked to fentanyl, according to police.