Man saddled with drug charges appears in court

ANTIGO — A man arrested in late August after being charged with manufacturing and delivering meth and fentanyl appeared in the Langlade County Courthouse Monday afternoon.

Kevin Drake, 48, was arrested Aug. 23 after being pulled over on W. Bear Lake Rd. in the Town of Rolling for driving with a suspended license. Local law enforcement had been conducting surveillance of his residence.

According to the criminal complaint, a sheriff’s deputy observed prescription bottles with no labels — one containing white residue, the other containing an actual white powdery substance — on the floor in the front seat of the vehicle. A K9 alerted when he sniffed the vehicle, and a test kit later indicated one of the bottles contained meth. After Drake was arrested, a further search of the vehicle also yielded jewel bags containing a crystal-like substance.

Law enforcement linked Drake to other drug dealers in the county through an investigation that began in Nov. 2023, when Antigo police listened to jail phone calls to a Polar resident named Kevin Frazier which indicated a drug transaction was occuring.

Police traveled to Frazier’s home, patted him down, and confiscated a bag containing crystal meth rocks. They also discovered another baggie with a pink powder-like substance that tested positive for fentanyl.

After the incident, a witness informed the police officer, along with a DCI (Division of Criminal Investigation) agent, that Frazier, Drake, and a man named Brady Mevis had all been dealing drugs in Langlade County. He said the three received out-of-state drug shipments of meth and fentanyl at Drake’s residence on Wilson Rd. in Rolling, including one on Nov. 2.

According to the complaint, on Nov. 2, Frazier and Drake took the package to a camper trailer and “opened the package together and unpackaged the drugs. Drake called another person to sell 1 lb of methamphetamine for $3,000. Witness 1 stated 1 lb of the methamphetamine was delivered by Drake and Frazier to this other party. Witness 1 stated 5 oz. went with Frazier and the remaining amount was handed over to Mevis. One of the 5 oz. that went to Frazier was then recovered by law enforcement on November 3, 2024 as was some of the fentanyl.”

The witness went on to claim that he had personally seen a similar package come in containing 100 pills of fentanyl, 10 lbs of marijuana, and meth.

The DCI agent confirmed that mail and phone records supported the witness’s statements and also learned of two packages in September 2023 that were shipped from California and Washington state.

Drake is being held on a $50,000 cash bond in the Langlade County Jail. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 28 at 1:30 p.m.