Alaska’s anti-drug trafficking team seized 76% more illicit drugs last year compared to the previous year, according to their 2024 annual report. That included more than 42 million potentially-fatal doses of fentanyl.
Captain Cornelius “Moose” Sims, commander of the statewide Drug Enforcement Unit, said the increase in drug seizures is due to more anti-drug-trafficking work at airports and with the postal inspection service.
Alaska’s population is small, but Sims said traffickers target the state because its geographical isolation creates higher profit margins.
“Pills that you can buy in a source state for, well, I'm hearing they're 10 to 25 cents a pill bought wholesale now, you turn around, sell a single one of those pills in the state of Alaska for anywhere from $10-180,” Sims said. “So drug dealers, drug traffickers, know this, so it gives them something to focus [on] and to go after.”
2023 was Alaska’s deadliest year on record for drug overdoses and unlike the rest of the United States, the state hasn’t seen overdose death rates decline yet. Sims said he hopes confiscating so many drugs will help decrease overdose deaths in the state, but in 2023 there were more seizures compared to 2022 and the overdose death rate still climbed. But Sims said he has heard reports that seizures are reducing the drug supply, especially in smaller Alaska communities.
He said Alaska has limited resources to intercept drugs; only 27 state troopers are focused on drug seizures in the field. But he said because the state is part of a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force, they can collaborate with federal partners.
“Working with those federal partners allows us not only to have an impact on what's coming in, but also reach outside of Alaska,” Sims said. “So it is very important, and it allows us to, as I like to say, go after the head of the snake versus the tail, or just the middle part of the snake.”
The team also confiscated four times the liters of alcohol being trafficked to damp or dry areas of the state in 2024 compared to the previous year. In 2024 Sims said he added investigators in the cities that are hubs to dry communities, including Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue and Dillingham.
