With fewer than 1,000 residents, Sand Point is the kind of place where people know each other by name, and where the rhythms of life are shaped by the sea. On Popof Island at the entrance to the Bering Sea, the community is home to the largest commercial fishing fleet in the Aleutians. Almost half its residents are of Aleut descent and summers bring an influx of workers when commercial salmon fishing is in full swing.
For a town this size, the arrival of thousands of fentanyl pills and other narcotics has devastating consequences. Yet according to federal prosecutors, Sand Point was one of several Alaska communities targeted by a drug trafficking ring that spanned from Mexico to Anchorage and through correctional facilities in Alaska.
Last week, Richard Frye, 36, of Anchorage, pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to distribute fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin on behalf of the organization, allegedly run by a California inmate.
According to court documents, Frye and co-conspirators Tiffani Couch, 31, and Anna Petla, 25, of Dillingham, were intercepted in March 2023 while attempting to move thousands of fentanyl pills bound for Sand Point.
Petla was stopped at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport carrying nearly 3,000 blue fentanyl pills and more than 80 grams of methamphetamine in her backpack. Outside the terminal, law enforcement detained Frye and Couch in a vehicle where they discovered another 500 fentanyl pills and more controlled substances. It was enough to kill the entire town several times over.
In June 2023, Frye and Couch were stopped again by police in Anchorage, this time with roughly 1,400 fentanyl pills, other narcotics and loaded ammunition magazines. Authorities say Frye intended to distribute these drugs within Alaska as part of the trafficking enterprise.
Even incarceration did not stop Fry. Court records show he attempted to smuggle fentanyl and suboxone into the Anchorage Correctional Complex by ingesting packages of drugs wrapped in condoms and cellophane, with the intent of distributing them inside the facility. Days later, correctional officers caught him trying to carry in 70 suboxone strips.
Prosecutors say Frye also moved thousands of dollars in and out of Alaska through digital money transfers, linking him to others in the organization. He faces up to 20 years in prison at his sentencing scheduled for Nov. 13, 2025.
Co-defendants have also pleaded guilty: Couch on May 9, and Petla on June 4. Both await sentencing. Petla now has three hots and a cot at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center.
The Department of Justice says more than 50 people have been charged in the conspiracy, which moved fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine from Mexico through Oregon and California and into Alaska between February 2022 and July 2023. Drugs were allegedly distributed to Anchorage, Dillingham, Fairbanks, Goodnews Bay, Ketchikan, Kodiak, New Stuyahok, Palmer, Sand Point, Savoonga, Sitka, Togiak, Tyonek and Wasilla.
At the center of the ring, prosecutors allege, was 57-year-old Heraclio Sanchez-Rodriguez, a California inmate who directed operations using contraband phones inside prison. Authorities say he coordinated with suppliers in Mexico and associates in the Lower 48, while recruits in Alaska, including inmates at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center, helped distribute narcotics across the state.
Christina Quintana, 38, an inmate at Hiland Mountain during the entirety of the conspiracy, was known as one of Sanchez-Rodriguez’s “wives,” a title reserved for high-ranking members of the enterprise. Her role in the conspiracy was to recruit soon-to-be-released inmates from Hiland to be distributors of the drugs. Upon release, the newly recruited members received packages of drugs to distribute the drugs across Alaska. Quintana once shot the kneecaps out of a woman in Sitka over an unpaid drug debt.
Defendants in this case include:
1. Alison Giacullo, 40
2. Amber Young, 28
3. Amy Garcia, 32
4. Angela Jasper, 39
5. Anna Petla, 24
6. April Chythlook, 28
7. Ashley Northrup, 35
8. Catherine Phillips, 40
9. Christina Quintana
10. Cloe Sam, 26
11. Colleen McDaniel, 68
12. Della Northway, 28
13. Desiree Green, 45
14. Douglas Vanmeter, 32
15. Edward Ginnis
16. Elroy Bouchard, 58
17. Erika Badillo, a.k.a “Erica Madrigal,” 42
18. Erindira Pin, 44
19. Frieda Gillespie, 50
20. Gust Romie, 36
21. Heraclio Sanchez-Rodriguez, a.k.a “Charlie,” “Marco” and “Danny Sanchez”
22. James Schwarz, 41
23. Josi Sterling, a.k.a “Josi Philbin,” 35
24. Julia Brusell, 41
25. Kaleea Fox, 24
26. Karen Kasak, 51
27. Karly Fuller, 30
28. Kevin Peterson II
29. Khamthene Thongdy, 45
30. Krystyn Gosuk, 33
31. Larry Marsden, 41
32. Lois Frank, 64
33. Mario Klanott, 37
34. Michael Kohler, 35
35. Michael Soto, 33
36. Michelle Pungowiyi, 49
37. Naomi Sanchez, 39
38. Pasquale Giordano, 45
39. Patricia Seal-Uttke, 30
40. Pius Hanson, 40
41. Richard Frye, 35
42. Rochelle Wood, 38
43. Samantha Pearson
44. Sara Orr, 32
45. Shanda Barlow, 34
46. Shania Agli, 25
47. Stormy Cleveland, a.k.a “Stormy Powell,” 37
48. Tamara Bren
49. Tamberlyn Solomon, 25
50. Tiffani Couch, 30
51. Twyla Gloko, 36
52. Valerie Sanchez, 26
53. Veronica Sanchez, 49
Jails and prisons have just become too nice and comfy where criminals continue to prosper and distribute poison to the entire state.
They need to build a prison off the grid without cell service or internet somewhere north of the Arctic Circle where prisoners can just “chill out” for their entire sentence.
Their free time can be better spent trying to survive the cold and mosquitos.
How do you think the inmates got away with this while in a completely controlled and “secure” environment? Just ask yourself that question and think about it. Excellent police work by the way.
BINGO! The whole system itself is corrupt. Time for Alaskan citizens to acknowledge the truth. The ‘system’ is actually a State run operation.
I don’t understand how two people that get caught with illegal drugs can be back on the street and be caught again three months later. We’re doing something wrong here folks.
Revolving Door Judicial System…..
Drugs and alcohol are a serious problem in Alaska and any effort to reduce their deadly effects is a force for good.
We should adopt the same rules Singapore uses.
Villages overflowing with federal $$$ have been targets for drug cartels for a long time with the blessing of tribal councils.
Lots of Native surnames on this list.
Poisoning their own people.
If I ran things …… death sentence for all 53.
They were attempting to murder a lot of people for profit.
We should send a message …..imo.
Mao Zedong ended a 250 year long opium epidemic in China in ten short years. If we are ever to end our narcotics/crime problems, it will have to be done in similar fashion:
* Addicts were required to attend detox, and if they failed they were executed.
* Farmers growing poppies were required to switch to growing food, and if they failed, their lands were taken.
* Opium smugglers were summarily executed.
Mr. Sanchez-Rodriguez (and all those guilty of participating in this from correction facilities) should be summarily executed. I suggest building a gallows at all American maximum and medium security prisons, in an area that can be seen from exercise yards, and all prisoners must muster and witness all executions. If you can’t live in prison (which exists not to punish, but to keep the public safe from you) without continuing to extend your evil upon society, you need to be checked out forcibly. Again, this isn’t to punish. This isn’t justice. This is society’s last hope of survival. It’s dog-eat-dog because one of the dogs can’t stop his aggression. We cannot allow this to continue, or we are all lost.
There is a moral place for capital punishment, and the lack of its use over the past half century is plainly illustrating why it’s necessary.
AGREE! Look at what has happened in Portland, Oregon.
Wow, just wow – citing Mao as a leader to emulate.
I really, really hope you don’t think anything you said in your post comes close to representing a conservative position.
It most certainly isn’t “conservative”. It’s simple common sense. The only other solution is building hundreds more prisons, and housing criminals in prisons in solitary confinement so they can’t harm each other or us. If you can pull that off from your moral high horse, by all means, get busy. Otherwise, it’s just more of the same, and growing exponentially.
Wow, why am I not surprised we have Narcos-Northern Exposure family . Thank you our local and federal law enforcement to apprend these pushers and killers. Excellent reporting by Must Read Alaska.
Cartels and Chinese Triads launder money through casinos following the “Vancouver Model.” One of many reasons to be concerned about casinos in Alaska.
‘https://themobmuseum.org/blog/chinese-triads-launder-billions-through-vancouver-buying-luxury-real-estate-cars/
‘https://vancouversun.com/news/mexican-sinaloa-cartel-linked-alleged-surrey-bc-traffickers-civil-forfeiture-lawsuit
Amber Young is Sarah Short’s daughter.
. Public execution, you ride with them you can hang with them. This drug situation is intolerable. Kill all the dealers. The cost of this insanity is to high. I do not care to pay housing on a derelict predator.
Honorable and decent solution and most cost effective
EUTHANIZE
kill (an animal or a person having anything to do with drugs in any manner) humanely, especially to stop it suffering:
Historically big money comes to Alaska with the commercial fisheries. The nefarious who hunger for dirty wealth develop ‘grab and go’ schemes. They follow the lower 48 workers, usually young college folks, who fish the summer seasons.
All come up to earn their ‘fair share’ from the ocean of Alaska wealth.
It has been a cycle for a very long time.
In the 70’s and 80’s it was cocaine. It wasn’t unusual to find a coc line on the counter of the bar and spoons came out in the bathroom stalls. Temporary highs became addictions and life killers.
Drug dependency is lifestyle that is not productive.
On the other side, drug temptations offer opportunities to turn away and choose NOT to participate.
Choose a productive lifestyle. It is a personal lifetime gain.