Anchorage Daily News

A case of beer and a bottle of whiskey cost the owner of Ambler Air Service $55,000 this week. "This is one of the most expensive drinks in history," said Shannon Eddy, a state prosecutor who works solely on bootlegging cases for the state.

Prosecutors say pilot David L. Rue's blue Piper Lance was about to take off from Fairbanks for the dry village of Ambler when police found the booze in his bag.

It's illegal to bring alcohol to Ambler, and authorities charged Rue with a misdemeanor. He pleaded guilty Wednesday in Fairbanks.

But he wasn't alone on the plane. There were four passengers and plenty more liquor, according to charging documents.

A search also found:

• Four 50-ml bottles of whiskey - think airline-sized servings - tucked into a pair of shoes.

• Ten 750-ml bottles of whiskey and rum, and "a leafy substance believed to be marijuana."

• Three 50-ml bottles of liquor in a "Dora the Explorer" handbag.

Though he pleaded guilty, Rue said he was not knowingly trying bring liquor into the village.

"I'm not in a position as a pilot to go through people's baggage," he said in a short telephone interview Thursday.

The case against Rue is one of the roughly 200 bootlegging prosecutions each year in Alaska, where local villages and towns vote on whether to allow sale, importation or possession of alcohol.

A state judge sentenced Rue to 20 days in jail, fined his company $20,000 and took the plane.

The company paid $35,000 to get it back.

Across the state, alcohol makes it into dry villages in more ways than one, said Virginia Commack, general manager for the Native Village of Ambler.

And it will keep happening, she said. "It's very difficult, without law enforcement in the villages, to enforce this law."

POLICE TIPPED OFF

Ambler is a community of about 300 people roughly 140 miles northeast of Kotzebue. Ambler Air Service is based there, with Rue listed as one of three owners.

Rue said it's a one-plane, one pilot operation that has been in business since 1975, carrying passengers and cargo to villages such as Shungnak, Huslia and Allakaket.

"During the past eight to 10 years, law enforcement agencies ... have had numerous tips regarding Ambler Air and passengers transporting alcohol and/or other controlled substances," said Eddy, the prosecutor.

On March 21, Fairbanks airport police fielded two such tips, according to charging documents. Word was a passenger packing alcohol or drugs would be flying on Ambler Air from Fairbanks to Ambler or Shungnak - another village that bans importation.

In the past, airport police had trouble contacting Ambler Air passengers because of "counter surveillance conducted by Rue and his passengers," prosecutors wrote.

Counter surveillance?

Eddy wouldn't elaborate on what that meant, exactly. But airport police asked troopers for help, and soon an undercover trooper watched Rue as he began to load the plane.

Passengers arrived. Authorities searched the Piper. They found several bottles of liquor, big and small.

Prosecutors only charged Rue with the alcohol found in a bag he was seen loading on the plane.

As of Thursday, none of the passengers - three adults and a 17-year-old girl - had been charged with any crime. Eddy declined to name the passengers, saying the investigation continues.

Prosecutors don't think Rue planned to sell the alcohol in Ambler, where Eddy estimated some bottles of whiskey can go for $250 to $350.

According to Eddy and the charging documents, the 17-year-old passenger said Rue told her to say the Natural Ice beer and Early Times whiskey in the white game bag was hers. But confronted with video of Rue buying the alcohol at a Fairbanks Fred Meyer, she changed her story, the documents say.

Asked about those details of the case, Rue politely hung up the phone.

"I better not say any more, thank you," he said.

‘I DID A BAD THING'

Rue was charged in a 2000 bootlegging case when a village public safety officer saw him leave the airport with a case of Miller Lite on his snowmobile. He pleaded no-contest, was put on probation, and his conviction was later set aside.

Friends, including state Rep. Woodie Salmon, wrote the court letters supporting Rue in this week's case. Several said he diligently checks for liquor.

"I have regularly seen him search cargo for contraband (alcohol or drugs)," wrote flight instructor Forest Kirst.

At his sentencing in Fairbanks, Rue talked about the search-and-rescue missions he's flown and emergency flights he donated to families, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

"I don't think I'm a completely bad person," Rue said, according to the paper. "I did a bad thing, and I'm sorry for that."

As part of the plea agreement, his company agreed to allow its plane, employees and passengers to be searched for alcohol - without the need for a warrant - for the next four years.

Find Kyle Hopkins' political blog online at adn.com/alaskapolitics or call him at 257-4334.

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