(Anchorage, AK) – The Anchorage Airport Interdiction Team arrested two Utqiagvik residents on federal drug trafficking charges after a suspicious parcel was intercepted at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. On January 12, 2021 US Postal Inspectors identified a suspicious parcel in transit to Utqiagvik from Arizona. Upon further investigation, approximately 200 M30 fentanyl pills were identified inside the parcel. M30 fentanyl pills sell for approximately $100 per pill in Utqiagvik.

On January 15, 2021 members of the Trooper’s Statewide Drug Enforcement Unit (SDEU) Anchorage Airport Interdiction Team, US Postal Inspectors, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents traveled to Utqiagvik aboard a US Coast Guard Aircraft to conduct a controlled delivery operation. With the assistance of the North Slope Borough Police Department, 41-year-old Utqiagvik resident Bryon McFadden and 30-year-old Utqiagvik resident Roberta Sielak were arrested on federal drug trafficking charges including: conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and attempt to possess controlled substances with intent to distribute. Both were transported to Anchorage where they were remanded.

“Disrupting the sale, trafficking, and distribution of illegal narcotics in Alaska is a top priority of the Department of Public Safety and our many law enforcement partners across the state,” said Colonel Bryan Barlow, Director of the Alaska State Troopers. “The SDEU and its regional task forces are constantly working with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to find and arrest those that deal drugs in Alaska. Illegal narcotics have a widespread negative impact on Alaskans in every corner of our state. We are committed to do our part to change that.”

The Anchorage Airport Interdiction Team is a Trooper-led drug interdiction task-force staffed by investigators and agents from the Alaska State Troopers, Anchorage Police Department, North Slope Borough Police Department, Anchorage Airport Police Department, Sand Point Police Department, DHS – Homeland Security Investigations, US Postal Inspection Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the US Coast Guard Investigative Service.

During the 2020 calendar year the SDEU seized over 158,500 grams of illegal narcotics throughout Alaska including:

• 21,854.06 grams of Heroin 
• 29,969.93 grams of Methamphetamine
• 3,465.82 grams of Cocaine
• 103,251.40 grams of other illegal narcotics, such as mushrooms, hash oil, LSD, prescription pills and tablets, and others.

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  arrests, barrow, drugs, fentanyl, interdiction, sdeu, traffickers, Utqiagvik