Crime & Courts

Washington man gets 8 1/2 years for shipping heroin to Fairbanks

Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that a Bellingham, Washington, man was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for distributing heroin in Fairbanks to make money and support his own drug habit over the course of three years.

Peter M. Thornton was sentenced to 104 months followed by five years of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. He pleaded guilty in February to drug distribution and money laundering conspiracy charges.

Thornton got couriers to fly the heroin, carried on their bodies, up to Fairbanks, or he mailed it, prosecutors said.

Money from drug sales were deposited into Alaska bank accounts at Thornton's instruction, they said.

"From September 2010 through December 2013, approximately $300,000 in cash was deposited into accounts controlled by Thornton," prosecutors said.

A judge has ordered Thornton to forfeit $24,300. That cash and an additional payment will serve as a substitute for the seizure of his home, which prosecutors say was used for drug trafficking.

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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