A Southeast drug enforcement task force seized 24 grams of methamphetamine valued at $3,600, along with $11,440 in cash Feb. 15 after searching three homes in Wrangell.
A man and a woman were detained but not arrested, pending further investigation, Police Chief Tom Radke said.
The investigation, which has been underway for a couple of months, revolved around a package mailed to Wrangell, believed to come from north in the state, Radke said.
The task force — Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs, or SEACAD — consists of police departments from Wrangell, Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, Haines, Skagway, Petersburg, Hoonah, Craig and Yakutat; the state troopers; FBI; U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; U.S. Postal Inspection Service; and the Coast Guard.
Sitka police arrested three people on felony drug charges the same night as the Wrangell seizure.
The investigation in Wrangell was a separate incident from Sitka, Lt. Krag Campbell, at the Juneau Police Department and initiative commander at SEACAD, said last Thursday.
“One of the reasons it seems they are coordinated, our drug unit, SEACAD … they'll get cases that come in from all different regions in Southeast and act on them. Towns don’t have all the resources. Our task force will try to go in and help each other out as needed.”
The task force had time-sensitive information in Sitka and Wrangell, Campbell said.
Around the same time earlier this month as the Sitka investigation, “I'm thinking it was Thursday (Feb. 10) or Friday (Feb. 11), the end of the week, we started learning about the Wrangell stuff, and we got people over there,” he said.
Campbell said officers are looking further into drug sales in Wrangell, as well as drugs being brought in to Wrangell. The task force is trying to gather more information to submit to the district attorney’s office for possible prosecution.
Not making an arrest can be strategic. “The only timeline I run into is if we make an arrest, it gets that timeline going — we have to get a case to the grand jury. Sometimes cases, the size and scope investigation, could take several months, if not longer,” he said.
“We were happy to go in there (to Wrangell) recently, because typically we have less of a presence,” Campbell said. “It’s nice to be able to get there, be aware that there is drug activity in Wrangell, any time you can get people in to support the local agencies. … We can help to investigate drug cases, shake things up there. Hopefully stop some of the flow of drugs coming in and encourage people not to do it if at all possible.”
Reader Comments(0)