Started by Anchorage real-estate investor Thomas Cody and his partner Joe Bryant, the drug ring sneaked more than a ton of marijuana from British Columbia to Alaska and made the smugglers at least $10 million between 2000 and 2006, according to documents filed in federal court.
The tale ended with Cody murdered, Bryant dead in a suicide and co-conspirators Thomas Ranes and Dennis Shine in prison.
Their thirst for cash, land and expensive toys led to the ring's downfall, prosecutors said.
Today's land auction is a window into what happens after the headlines, as the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department look to sell off property the drug ring used to launder money, authorities said. Many of the smugglers' vehicles have already been sold.
There was the souped-up golf cart with a bright yellow paint job, emblazoned in red with a picture of Medusa's head. There was a Hummer H2 with six TV screens inside, painted orange and pink, that towed a matching Malibu Wakesetter boat on a trailer.
Someone from Alabama bought the Hummer at a Florida auction and found $150,000 hidden in an air bag, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Russo.
There was a motor home, and race cars, trucks, jet skis, ATVs and snowmachines. According to the Department of Justice, the federal government sold all of the vehicles at auction, except six still in dispute, for a total of $236,073.
The smugglers also bought land, including 29 acres in Muldoon, which the federal government agreed to sell to the city of Anchorage in 2006 for a net profit of $3.1 million, according to the prosecutor and news accounts at the time.
The property on the auction block today is some of the last of the drug dealers' holdings to be sold. It includes three warehouses off 64th Avenue and eight undeveloped plots of land near Abbott Road and the Old Seward Highway.
"They were forfeited as part of the overall case, and part of our job is to take the profit out of crime," said Dan Wardlaw, a regional spokesman for the IRS. "The assets are going to be sold and the proceeds will be deposited into the Treasury Forfeiture Fund and shared with the law enforcement agencies instrumental to this case."
The agencies include the Drug Enforcement Administration, Alaska State Troopers, IRS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Wardlaw said.
Wardlaw said the IRS doesn't yet have an exact figure for how much money the federal government has taken in from selling off the drug dealers' vehicles and real estate.
Today's auction marks the end of the investigation into the smuggling operation, according to the IRS. But long before authorities cracked the case, it wasn't the pricey purchases that first grabbed the troopers' attention.
It was the money itself.
"What initially tipped off the troopers was they were depositing money that smelled like marijuana in local banks," said Russo, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Ranes and Shine. "Some of the money was literally laundered, meaning that they had put it through washing machines to try to get the smell out, and so it was dried and it was all crinkled, like if you ever put money in your clothes dryer."
Federal investigators soon uncovered more than 100 deposits, each for thousands of dollars, in a joint account for Ranes and Shine Automotive, a shop the co-conspirators owned together not far from the property being sold today.
Agents set up video cameras to watch the shop, Russo said.
"They ended up seeing various vehicles coming and going at odd hours of the night," he said.
When they raided the warehouses and the automotive shop in April 2006, the authorities found about 10 guns of various lengths, flatbed trucks with hidden compartments, and 347 pounds of marijuana, Russo said.
"It was a busy couple days," the prosecutor said.
Soon after, Bryant shot and killed himself. Cody was missing. His body was found in 2007 in Jim Creek.
Shine admitted in court to killing the former drug boss and taking over the operation, according to court documents. Ranes pleaded guilty in 2008 to conspiring to import marijuana and money laundering.
Meantime, the feds sold the drug dealers' cars and boat, Russo said.
An Alabama resident bought the Hummer at an auction in Florida for $27,500, Russo said. The buyer took the vehicle into a shop for some work and found $150,000 in cash hidden inside, he said.
"It was fascinating," Russo said. "That was only part of it, but it was certainly an indication there was more out there."
The new owner was allowed to keep the money, Russo said.
Reach Casey Grove at casey.grove@adn.com or 257-4589.
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