(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - As communities throughout Southeast Alaska report significant volumes of illegal drugs transported via the United States Postal Service (USPS), United Stes Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is asking the Postmaster General to address the matter, possibly by devoting additional US Postal Inspection Service resources to the area or increasing collaboration with local law enforcement agencies to reduce the flow of drugs into Southeast.

Senator Murkowski has been working with the US Postal Inspection Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration since last August to identify ways to interrupt illegal drugs trafficking into Southeast Alaska through the mail, the Alaska Marine Highway System and other transportation avenues.

In a letter, to the Postmaster General, Murkowski wrote,  “I am told the U.S. Postal Service has become a main conduit for drug trafficking in Juneau, Petersburg, and other Southeast Alaska communities.  For example, Alaska State Representative Muñoz reports that in the past two years, only one, 2.5 day USPS inspection was permitted, and that inspection revealed 10 packages of narcotics valued at over $300,000.”

Murkowski continues, “Action must be taken to ensure that the USPS is not an avenue for drug trafficking… In this difficult budget environment, another solution I urge you to consider is whether cross-deputization agreements could be entered with local law enforcement that might allow them to conduct inspections, if they have the resources to do so.  I understand such an arrangement is working well between USPS and the Alaska State Troopers in Western Alaska.”

Recently, officers of the Ketchikan Police Department, working with the Drug Enforcement Administration executed a search warrant on a Garden Lane residence after agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration intercepted a package mailed there which contained 410 grams (.9 pounds) of black tar Heroin with a street value of over $200,000.00. Officers arrested 38 year old Travis Straight of Ketchikan in connection with the package.

Edited by Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News: 

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski
www.murkowski.senate.gov

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