Troopers with the Parks Highway team arrested two individuals on drug charges after a traffic stop that took place at just after 3 pm on Wednesday afternoon near Healy.

The traffic stop expanded into a drug investigation when one of the state’s newest K9 units, “Kimmik,” who was at the scene, alerted to the presence of drugs. “Kimmik” found that a 21-year-old passenger, Brandon Sheppard, was in possession of 88 grams of cocaine. As a result, Sheppard was arrested on charges of Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance III.

The investigation continued and it was found that the driver of the vehicle, 23-year-old Elijah Rausch, was involved in trafficking of the drug and was also arrested. It would be found that Rausch was also in violation of his probation and so was taken into custody on that violation as well.

With the assistance of the Nenana VPSO, both subjects were transported from the arrest location at mile 247 of the Parks Highway to the Fairbanks Correctional Facility.

At arraignment on Wednesday the judge ordered Rausch help with his bail set at $25,000 and Sheppard’s bail was set at $10,000.

AST says that “Kimmik” is one of the three newest K9 units of the eight in the state, and “are trained and utilized to perform a variety of functions including drug detection & interdiction, tracking, apprehension, building searches, area searches, search & rescue, and handler protection.”

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