An inmate at an Arizona prison plotted with four other people to ship and distribute at least a kilogram of heroin to Alaska and to the prison, according to a federal indictment handed down this week.
Federal agents interrupted the scheme early this year when they intercepted two packages containing more than 820 grams of heroin, the indictment says.
Michael Carle, 29, Courtney Milligan, 26, Carlos Raul Gonzalez, 29, Shaun Roe, 25 and Christine Walters, 37, each face a felony charge of conspiracy to distribute heroin.
According to the indictment, Roe was serving a sentence at Red Rock Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., on a Alaska state robbery conviction when he masterminded the plan to ship heroin to Alaska.
While there, he got into contact with Walters to supply the heroin, assistant U.S. attorney Stephan Collins said.
A postal inspector discovered a package in January that contained more than two pounds of black tar heroin and 12 Xanax pills. Conducting a controlled delivery, investigators placed a small amount of the heroin into the package and sprayed the box's inside with a theft-detection powder to see who handled its contents, then delivered it to a residence where Carle signed for it, the inspector's affidavit says.
The indictment alleges that Carle and Milligan were Alaska drug distributors and that Gonzalez supplied some of the money used to buy and distribute the heroin. The conspirators distributed the drug in Alaska and other locations, including into the Red Rock prison, the indictment says.
Federal prosecutors say Roe, who is now at Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward, and Milligan, Gonzalez and Carle are scheduled for court appearances in Anchorage this week. Walters is a fugitive.
If convicted, each is facing between 10 years and life in prison.