Fairbanks woman charged after investigators find 25 grams of fentanyl in mailed package

A 35-year-old Fairbanks woman was arrested and charged Tuesday with second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance after investigators found 25 grams of fentanyl in a package shipped to a Fairbanks residence, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety daily dispatch. The drugs have a street value of about $25,000, the dispatch said.

Fairbanks Areawide Narcotics Team investigators identified the suspicious package Oct. 14, applied for a search warrant and found the fentanyl inside, the dispatch said. FANT and the Fairbanks Criminal Suppression Unit arrested the woman six days later.

FANT is one of six regional task forces in Alaska's Statewide Drug Enforcement Unit. It covers Interior Alaska, with territory reaching north to Utqiaġvik and east to the Canadian border, and works with the FBI, the DEA, the U.S. Marshals Service, the ATF and other military, state and local agencies.

In 2024, Alaska State Troopers and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service set up a task force that lets Alaska High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area officers help identify and intercept narcotics sent through the mail, the department reported in January 2025. Statewide seizures that year included what the department called about 42 million potentially fatal doses of fentanyl.

The department says charges listed in its dispatches are accusations and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty. The investigation is ongoing.