Crime & Courts

Two Soldotna men charged with Spice trafficking

A federal grand jury indicted two Soldotna men last week on charges of trafficking the synthetic drug Spice.

Philip Drake Kneeland, 33, who was operating the business Tobacco Distress Inc. on the Kenai Peninsula, and William Donald Vincent Dooley, 27, are both named in the indictment. In addition to allegedly trafficking packages of the synthetic drugs, the men also are accused of firearms offenses in relation to the trafficking, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Anchorage.

According to federal court records, authorities issued warrants and arrested both men on Thursday.

Alaska State Troopers in Soldotna initiated an investigation in October into Tobacco Distress, a shop on the Sterling Highway in Soldotna. Troopers said at that time that they seized 518 packets of Spice from the shop and sent them to the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory for testing. Test results showed 146 of the packets contained chemicals controlled under state statutes, they said.

On Thursday, prosecutors detailed some of the products seized and the chemicals identified. Packages were labeled Judgment Day, Armageddon, Big Bang and California Dreams. Other brands were marked with flavors like mango, grape and cotton candy.

"Spice consists of plant material laced with psychotropic drugs. Usually marketed in flashy foil packaging, Spice is falsely sold as 'herbal incense,' 'potpourri,' and mislabeled as 'not intended for human consumption,'" the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Prosecutors wrote in the indictment against Kneeland and Dooley that Spice use has caused a spike in emergency room visits nationwide. The Anchorage Fire Department saw an increase in suspected Spice medical calls in the summer of 2015. The city made the use and sale of the drug a misdemeanor crime in November (citing more than 50 people for usage and busting two for sales as of late January).

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Kneeland faces 20 years on three Spice charges, as well as a mandatory minimum of 30 years on the gun charges; Dooley faces 20 years for the Spice charges and another five years on a firearm charge, prosecutors said.

The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of more than $75,000, several guns and a pickup truck.

Jerzy Shedlock

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

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