Selawik man, 58, arrested at Anchorage airport after cocaine found in checked bag

The Anchorage Airport Interdiction Team arrested a 58-year-old Selawik man Wednesday after airport screeners found 185 grams, gross weight, of suspected cocaine in a coffee container in his checked luggage, Alaska State Troopers said.

Troopers said the cocaine would have sold for $27,750 in Kotzebue and Selawik. Officers found the man at the departure gate for a flight from Anchorage to Kotzebue. His final destination was Selawik, according to the trooper dispatch.

The task force was notified at 6:55 am that Transportation Security Administration screeners had found a white, chalky substance hidden in the coffee container during a secondary luggage search. Investigators said the bag was the man's and that he had it before checking it. The substance tested positive for cocaine in a field test.

He was arrested on a charge of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, a felony under state law, and taken to the Anchorage Correctional Complex. The Department of Public Safety says charges are accusations and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The investigation remains open, troopers said, with help from the Western Alaska Alcohol and Narcotics Team.

The interdiction team is a drug task force that handles investigations of drug trafficking through airport passengers, luggage, packages and cargo, according to the Department of Public Safety. It draws officers from the Alaska State Troopers, the Anchorage Airport Police Department, the North Slope Borough Police and the Sand Point Police Department, and works with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

The state's 2025 Annual Drug Report says cocaine seizures by the Statewide Drug Enforcement Unit rose from 30,819 grams in 2024 to 51,328 grams in 2025. It says 82% of cocaine, fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine seizures happened in the Municipality of Anchorage, including the airport complex.