A total of twenty pounds worth of methamphetamine have been taken in the last week of the law enforcement community’s description of one of the biggest arrests of drugs within Southeast Alaska in recent years. A regional team of drug enforcement came together to track down the meth, which was headed towards Alaska via an unidentified ferry.
The whole thing began by way of an anonymous tip. According to court papers, Alaska State Trooper Sergeant Casey Hershberger contacted the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs task group to report that he’d been told that meth could soon be heading towards Alaska. And it’s going to be massive 10+ pounds.
“We received information from down south , along with the law enforcement agencies of our partners that could be an individual travelling towards Juneau via the Alaska Marine Highway System that was carrying a substantial amount of methamphetamine” Lieutenant. Krag Crampbell of the Juneau Police Department said in an interview by phone on Monday. JPD is one of over a dozen organizations that are part of the task team.
The meth was to sail through across Inside Passage on the ferry Columbia which runs from Bellingham up to Juneau. After a journey across on the west coast in British Columbia, the meth’s journey was cut short at Ketchikan on February. 17.
Based on Hershberger’s information that a state trooper as well as an Ketchikan detective entered the Columbia with an arrest warrant for stateroom 151A as well as the occupant the 43 year-old Oregon male Michael D. Davis.
Then, they discovered an unmarked Duffel in blue. Inside, according to Ketchikan police Lieutenant. Andy Berntson, were 18 meth packets packed in tortillas.
“That was a brand new concept. It looked like giant ol’ burritos that were overstuffed,” Berntson said in an interview on the phone Monday.
The package weighted around 20 pounds, and were estimated to be worth more than $1 million in the estimation of police. Police arrested Davis for a felony drug charges and booked him into the Ketchikan Correctional Facility. Davis is facing the charge of felony drugs that can result in a maximum penalty that is 10 years of prison. The bail information was not immediately available.
When Davis’s travels ended in Ketchikan’s prison, that blue backpack continued north along the Columbia as did what the investigators have described in court papers as”a “representative specimen” of the drug that was seized.
The bag’s travel partner included Jack Ford, a Ketchikan police department detective.
“Throughout this investigation we were able discover that the ultimate objective of methamphetamine intended to be given to someone located in Juneau who was to take it to the ferry station,” Campbell said.
The moment it was time for the Columbia was docked at the Juneau’s Auke Bay, Detective Ford was seen walking off the ferry, carrying the blue duffel as well as the phone was seized from Davis.
According to court papers, investigators believed that the meth came via Miles Martin, an Oregon resident, and son of the Juneau woman, 59, Nanette Brown. Detective Ford sent a text message to Nanette Brown to inform her the police had arrived.
After a while the silver Nissan pickup arrived. The driver instructed the undercover policeman to put the bag inside the truck. The two parted ways. Soon after, police stopped and detained the driver, whom they confirmed as Nanette Brown’s husband the 60-year-old Rodney Brown.
The attention of police was turned to their attention to the Browns’ Vista Drive apartment in Douglas.
They observed as Nanette Brown made her way to an apartment next door with the bag in a variety of colors. Police say the bag included two ammo containersone of which contained nearly $70,000 cash, and the one with over half of a kilogram of meth and about 150 pills believed to contain the drug fentanyl.
Police detained Nanette Brown, and took her to the police station. They also searched her house. According to court papers they discovered nine guns and a stash of meth. They Browns have been charged with two drug-related felony charges as well as a felony weapon charge.
The Browns and Davis have both pleaded not to be guilty. They’re scheduled for court hearings in the next few weeks.
In all, the bust was one of the biggest ever recorded. Campbell declares it was the biggest that he’s managed during the three years in charge of the Police Department of Juneau’s drugs department. Campbell believes that it’ll cut down on meth production in Juneau.
“I believe that this will (have) massive impact. We don’t have that many get into Southeast Alaska — it’s extremely uncommon,” he said.
Berntson The Ketchikan lieutenant believes that the 20-pound bust will reduce meth production in the smaller communities of Southeast Alaska. He says this is the purpose that the region’s taskforce is working towardseven though trafficking in drugs is often viewed as a crime that is not retributable, Berntson says that misses the larger perspective.
“When people are on these kinds of drugs they’re not the people they were before,” he said. “They perform actions in desperate need of money. They do it in order to obtain the drugs, and it just bleeds into the other criminal areas.”
Berntson also says it’s become uncommon to see busts on state-owned ferries. A lot of recent busts are linked to air travel, or the postal service. Berntson puts it down to a variety of reasons.
“The sailings haven’t been as frequent as they were in recent times,” he said. “Drug dealers generally like two things. First, speed and the other is reliability.”
