WINONA, Minn. – Police arrested a Winona woman after finding a huge cache of cocaine at her apartment. The cocaine, said police, was in five clear baggies, each somewhere between the size of a ping-pong ball and a softball. Officers said they had never seen so much cocaine, almost 21 ounces, in one place at one time. Street value: $60,000. The woman also surrendered additional cocaine stuffed in her bra. Also at the apartment: Police found a gun, drug packaging equipment and materials, $12,000 cash, and a cash-counting device. Arrested was Tanya Sherrie McCain, 49. This was about 4 p.m. at 1600 Homer Road. The arrest began when officers equipped with a warrant stopped McCain in a car at Fifth and St. Charles streets on the East End. The warrant was based on a disturbance three nights earlier at Katie’s Place bar, also on the East End. McCain first denied to police that she had a gun at the barn, saying it was pepper spray, but later, when pressed about what the bar’s video showed, she admitted it was a gun – a Taurus 38-caliber, often called a “38 Special,” police said. At her apartment police also found ammunition for a second firearm but couldn’t locate it.
McCain. Immediate charges: Illegal drug and firearm possession. Still under investigation: Details of a disturbance at the bar whose security video shows her brandishing a handgun.
Rap sheet. In recent years McCain has had numerous convictions in Olmsted, Steele and Winona counties. Among those were charges for disorderly conduct, brawling, burglary, drug sales, domestic assault.