Troopers detain 49 at Wasilla home while serving drug search warrant

Alaska State Troopers and Wasilla Police detained and identified 49 people at a single Aspen Avenue residence in Wasilla on Tuesday, Aug. 4, while serving a drug search warrant, troopers said.

Troopers arrested one man at the scene. Joshua Powers, 35, of Wasilla, faces a charge of fourth-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance. Ramon Jimenez, 38, of Anchorage, ran on foot as officers arrived and was caught by Wasilla Police after a short pursuit, according to the trooper dispatch. He was booked into Mat-Su Pretrial without bail on a federal arrest warrant.

Troopers said charges are being forwarded against numerous other people for third-degree misconduct involving weapons, misconduct involving a controlled substance in the third, fourth and fifth degrees, and fifth-degree misconduct involving weapons. Follow-up investigations into items found at the residence are continuing, and further charges are pending. Charges are accusations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The dispatch is the only account available for this story. It does not describe the warrant's underlying basis, what items were found inside the home, or how long the people contacted there were held at the scene. It also does not say whether Jimenez was among the 49 people contacted at the residence.

Four trooper units took part alongside Wasilla Police: the Highway Interdiction Team, the Statewide Drug Enforcement Unit, the Alaska Airport Interdiction Team and Palmer Patrol.

The warrant follows a run of coordinated drug operations in the Mat-Su and beyond. A Wasilla woman, 29, was arrested July 23 on felony drug charges after a two-month investigation that began with a highway traffic stop. Nine people were arrested during a trooper patrol at Salmonfest in Ninilchik between July 31 and Aug. 2. A trooper release last August described a two-day Fairbanks operation that produced 27 arrests, where "task force officers focused on crime suppression and cracking down on drug trafficking."

The ACLU of Alaska has argued that large multi-agency task force operations require clear policies and public accountability around warrant service. State public health materials report that fentanyl seizures have risen in Alaska while overdose deaths continue to climb.

The trooper dispatch does not name a court date for either man.