Three Nome men have been arrested on felony drug charges related to selling heroin, prescription pills, marijuana and other narcotics, all part of a multi-agency bust involving federal, state, and city law enforcement that came to a head Wednesday.
Combined the three men now in police custody—Darrell Stevens, 27; Christian Johnson, 22; and Aleksei Wilson, 28—face 22 felony drug charges.
In multiple surveilled and controlled buys that investigators say took place from early February through late March, a confidential informant allegedly bought multiple grams of heroin, six Adderall pills, and several ounces of marijuana from the three suspects. In two buys from Johnson, investigators say the informant also bought several grams of ethylone, a substance known as “molly” that’s chemically similar to the drug MDMA commonly known as ecstasy.
Alaska State Troopers, the Nome Police Department (including the Nome Police K9 unit), the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, and members of the Anchorage, Nome, and Kotzebue Western Alaska Alcohol and Narcotics Team assisted in the operation.
Trooper spokesperson Beth Ipsen said in an email that “approximately 10 law enforcement officers from various departments/agencies were involved” in the two final “buy/bust” operations in Nome on Wednesday, March 25.
Court records show Johnson and Stevens were arrested during an alleged drug deal, while Wilson was taken into custody as one of five search warrants were executed on local homes. Troopers said the residences were all “involved in the sale” of drugs and prescription medications in Nome.
Johnson faces eight felony drug charges for possession and distribution of prescription medication, heroin, and “pill capsules [of] a dirty brown crystal” and “brown powder substance” that both later tested positive for ethylone, referred to in court documents as molly. Court records reveal Troopers and Nome Police used surveillance and audio recordings of Johnson allegedly selling heroin and molly to their confidential informant. He was arrested March 25 during an alleged sale of six Adderall pills.
Stevens faces 11 felony counts for possession and distribution of heroin. Troopers claim five controlled buys from Stevens in their investigation, the last of which came shortly before Stevens was arrested Wednesday. After their CI allegedly bought two “niffs,” or roughly 0.2 grams, of heroin from Stevens, court documents say officers followed him to his home on East 3rd Avenue, where they found a tool box containing additional heroin bindles packaged for sale.
Wilson faces three felony drug charges for heroin and marijuana distribution. His criminal history includes conviction on a misdemeanor drug charge in 2009 and modified probation in the wake of being convicted for a 2010 felony drug contraband charge.
All three men were formally charged in Nome court Thursday and all three were held on $15,000 bail, with additional conditions to be set by the court before they could be released. As of Friday all three remained in custody at Nome’s Anvil Mountain Correctional Center. The men are due in court on April 3 for a preliminary hearing.
It was unclear Thursday if the three new arrests were connected to the ongoing, year-long investigation with Troopers and Nome Police that resulted in the heroin-related arrest of two Nome residents in December, a second couple arrested in January for allegedly selling methamphetamine, and the indictment of a fifth person in February on 11 drug charges related to the sale of heroin and methamphetamine.
