A weekend boat theft in Anchorage has led to the sinking of a drug distribution scheme, according to Soldotna police.
Good Samaritans helped the boat's owner track it to a Soldotna hotel, where four people were arrested and more than $100,000 in drugs and cash was seized, police said.
Anchorage Brewing Co. owner Gabe Fletcher said his stepfather's boat -- a 28-foot Kingfisher named Celestial Dawn -- was stolen Sunday night outside the company's facility on West 91st Avenue in South Anchorage.
"It's like a $100,000 boat," Fletcher said.
Anchorage police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro said an initial report of the theft at 9:20 p.m. Sunday didn't include any suspect information, but patrol officers were asked to keep an eye out for the boat and its trailer.
Fletcher said he also put out his own feelers on the theft, including a sharply worded post on the brewery's Facebook page.
"We have a pretty good friend base on our Facebook page," Fletcher said. "We sent out emails asking people to keep an eye out for the boat, and it just spread like wildfire."
People who spotted the boat and contacted Fletcher sporadically tracked its progress south overnight. Fletcher said they saw it near the Soldotna Inn, on the Kenai Spur Highway in downtown Soldotna, at about 8 a.m. Monday.
"They're driving around in daylight with this huge boat that says Celestial Dawn on the side; it's like they're pulling around a huge sign that says, 'I'm stupid,'" Fletcher said. "And then they park the boat on the busiest intersection on the Kenai Peninsula."
At that point, Fletcher called Alaska State Troopers to report the boat's discovery. He said it wasn't difficult to find the people who allegedly took it after the hotel's clerk was asked to contact them.
"The lady calls around the rooms to ask if anybody has a boat and (one of the defendants) says, 'Sure, we have a boat,'" Fletcher said.
Troopers and officers who raided the defendants' room with a search warrant found a variety of drugs, including 150 grams of black tar heroin worth an estimated $75,000 on the street, 90 grams of meth with a value of $18,000 and 2 ounces of marijuana. More than $10,000 in cash was also seized, along with fake IDs, drug packaging and paraphernalia, and six firearms; two of those guns, an AR-15-type rifle and a semiautomatic pistol, had been reported stolen.
According to a statement from the Soldotna Police Department, the accused include two Californians: 35-year-old Jesse M. Larosa of Yorba and 30-year-old Ashley N. Rubalcaba of Tustin. Alaskans charged in the case include Petersburg resident Anthony L. Hanson, 37, and 24-year-old Anchorage resident Samantha L. Griffiths. The arrests were first reported by the Peninsula Clarion.
Soldotna Police Chief Peter Mlynarik said the quantity of drugs seized Monday was likely intended to supply smaller drug dealers.
"There's really no reason to come down here with that amount of drugs unless you're planning on distributing it," Mlynarik said.
The drug bust isn't Soldotna's biggest -- Mlynarik said Soldotna officers seized about $250,000 of marijuana in a 2014 case -- but it's still a rare occurrence.
"This is definitely not the norm -- it's a huge amount of drugs to find," Mlynarik said.
Asked about the motive behind the boat theft, Mlynarik noted the case was still under investigation, with further charges possible.
"That's one of the links we're still following up on, getting all the players involved," Mlynarik said. "I wondered the same thing: Why take the boat they had?"
Fletcher said the boat is back in Anchorage, with a door aboard broken open but no items stolen.
"What do you even do with a boat that big?" Fletcher said.
Hanson, Larosa and Griffiths were all charged with multiple counts of misconduct involving controlled substances, while Rubalcaba was charged with criminal impersonation. Hanson and Larosa face additional counts of misconduct involving weapons; Hanson was hit with two counts of theft, while Larosa was charged with two counts of forgery.
All four were taken to the Wildwood Pretrial Facility and initially held without bail.