Ketchikan was part of conversations about statewide drug trafficking this year.
At the end of October, federal authorities arrested a group of drug traffickers led by Heraclio Sanchez-Rodriguez, an inmate in a California prison. In an indictment unsealed on October 26, the group was charged with kidnapping, carjacking, murder, and the trafficking of fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine throughout Alaska. They did it via packages shipped through the postal service.
The indictment specifically named Ketchikan as a destination for some of these packages. Law enforcement managed to intercept at least three of the postal drug shipments containing meth, heroin, and fentanyl. But the indictment says that many packages were delivered successfully.
This is one of two large drug busts involving Southeast Alaska in the month of October. They come just as community members are reporting a rise specifically in the rates of fentanyl on the streets of Ketchikan.
Lieutenant Mike Purcell oversees the Investigations Unit and drug enforcement at the Ketchikan Police Department.
The Ketchikan Police Department encourages tips by community members reporting suspicious activity, drug-related or otherwise.
