Crime & Courts

Alaska-bound packages yield cocaine, marijuana, heroin in DEA bust

In mid-March, a Drug Enforcement Administration officer found more than 6 pounds of cocaine and 4 pounds of marijuana inside two suspicious packages shipped from California to Alaska, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.

So far, the drug seizure that also included more than a half-pound of heroin has resulted in a single federal charge against John Albert Honeycutt Jr., who investigators say told them the 4-pound package of marijuana that was intended for personal use.

According to the complaint, Honeycutt has been charged with attempted possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. He was out of jail on supervised release -- a court requirement stemming from a previous drug conviction -- when authorities arrested him on March 11. A woman the complaint says was the intended recipient of both packages was also arrested but hasn't been charged.

A DEA task force officer said in the complaint he'd been working at the FedEx facility in Anchorage on the day of Honeycutt's arrest when he noticed a suspicious package.

Several things triggered the officer's suspicion -- all the seams of the package were taped, the shipping address was a rental mailbox mischaracterized as an apartment unit, and it was sent from a "source state" for drugs, among other features, according to the complaint.

The officer said he called the rental business and learned another package had just arrived for the same mailbox. It had also been sent from California, according to the complaint.

Authorities subsequently seized the second package, according to the complaint.

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The recipient's name was misspelled on one of the packages, but investigators believe both parcels were sent to a woman known to authorities from drug investigations and her association with a convicted drug dealer.

The woman hasn't been charged federally. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephan Collins declined to say whether prosecutors were planning to charge additional suspects.

When the officer searched the first package, Collins said, he uncovered "three bricks" or 6 1/2 pounds of cocaine and 300 grams of heroin; the second package yielded 4 pounds of suspected marijuana, according to the complaint.

"It's a significant quantity of drugs. The 3 kilos of cocaine is worth quite a lot on the street and could do a lot of damage," Collins said.

The street price of a gram of cocaine ranges from $80 to $120, he said. That would put the street value of the cocaine alone between $240,000 and $360,000.

Honeycutt and the woman arrived to pick up the packages in the late afternoon of March 11 and were arrested, according to documents.

"Honeycutt admitted that he was expecting to receive the parcel and had expected it to contain marijuana, asserting that the marijuana was for personal use," the complaint says.

Honeycutt's defense attorney Vikram Chaobal declined to comment about the case Wednesday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Smith ordered Honeycutt detained pending trial. He is currently being held at the Anchorage Correctional Complex.

Jerzy Shedlock

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

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