Shishmaref man charged with running moonshine still in dry community

A 60-year-old Shishmaref resident faces five counts of manufacturing and selling alcohol without a permit after Alaska Bureau of Investigation agents seized a still and moonshine from his home in March.

A Shishmaref man is accused of operating a still and selling homebrewed alcohol to residents between December 2025 and March 2026. Agents executed a search warrant at his residence in March and seized the still and an active solution of moonshine. A subsequent investigation indicated he sold alcohol to some residents in the community. He was arrested on a warrant and remanded to the Anchorage Correctional Complex. All charges are accusations; he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Shishmaref sits on Sarichef Island and has maintained dry status under Alaska's local option law for decades. That law, adopted in 1981, allows qualified communities to prohibit the sale, importation, and possession of alcohol by referendum. Roughly 120 Alaska communities have voted for some form of restriction. Shishmaref residents have held elections to consider lifting the ban, including a 2014 vote on whether to make the village wet, but the community has remained dry. The Alaska Department of Law cites alcohol as the leading cause of violence and accidental death in rural Alaska and points to that as the basis for strong enforcement of local option restrictions and action against bootlegging and unlicensed manufacture.

Selling alcohol in a local option community without a permit is a Class C felony under Alaska statute, carrying up to five years in prison and fines up to $50,000 per count. Five counts carry a potential exposure of up to 25 years and $250,000 in fines if a defendant is convicted on all of them.

Researchers note that local option bans can reduce some harms while producing unintended consequences, including bootlegging and shifts to other substances.