An Anchorage man, actively engaged in drug trafficking, was sentenced to 18 years in prison by Senior District Judge Ralph R. Beistline on Monday, acting U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder announced on Tuesday.

36-year-old Bernard Yamura White waws sentenced to 15 years for drug trafficking, money laundering, and firearms offenses. He was additionally sentenced to three more years for violating his prior terms of release.

Prior to his sentencing, a former neighbor of White’s spoke to the court and expressed community concern that White continued drug trafficking after three prior drug trafficking convictions.

Beistline, who sentenced White in one of his prior convictions, compared drug traffickers like White to domestic terrorists and said, “We must protect our community from those that want to destroy us.” After recounting White’s prior convictions in court, Beistline concluded that White was a danger to the community.

According to Schoder, and court documents, it was on August 22, of 2016 that White attempted to send $59,610 to a California address. He attempted to send an additional $30,980 on January 12th, 2017.

Then on February 8th, White was pulled over in a traffic stop by Anchorage police and was found to be “in possession of 118 grams of heroin, 59 grams of powder cocaine, and 35 grams of crack cocaine,” court documents showed.

Later in the day, White’s residence was searched and a further “786 grams of methamphetamine, 1318 grams of heroin, 176 grams of cocaine, and 837 grams of marijuana” were found in the home. In addition, 11 firearms that included rifles, semi-automatic pistols and shotguns were found in the home. White, a convicted felon, is prohibited from possessing firearms.

The investigation into White was carried out by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Explosives, and the Anchorage Police Department.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]

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