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Borough police nab heroin at King Salmon airport

Jorden Bishop, 27, of Palmer, arrested after police find 38 grams of heroin, plus meth and other narcotics allegedly in his belongings.

KDLG:  Two officers with the Bristol Bay Borough Police Department seized what they described as a "large amount" of heroin, plus crystal methamphetamine and other unidentified narcotics, at the Pen Air terminal in King Salmon on June 10.

The officers allege the drugs were found in the belongings of Jorden E. W. Bishop, 27, of Palmer.

Police were tipped off to the drugs by a ticketing agent at Pen Air, who had found a sunglass case left unattended in the terminal. According to a police affidavit, the agent took the case as lost property and waited for it to be claimed. Bishop approached the counter, looking for the case. The ticketing agent told police she looked inside the case before returning it to Bishop, and found a syringe, spoon, and what appeared to be drugs, and notified police.

Bishop denied the case was his, and refused to a search of his bags. After obtaining a warrant, police say they turned up more drugs, some of which they could not immediately identify. The officers weighed the seized heroin on an "untrue" scale, deducted the approximate weight of its packaging, and estimated the weight at 38 grams. If sold at $100 per one-tenth gram doses, the street value of that heroin in Bristol Bay would be $38,000.

The officers say they seized other cell phones, syringes, smoking torches, and other paraphernalia. All of the narcotics were sent to the state crime lab for testing.

Bishop was charged with fourth degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, and arraigned on June 11. He was ordered held on $5000 bail, and was still in custody on June 17. A pre-indictment hearing is scheduled for June 22.

The officers could not be reached for comment, but the Department said the case is still under investigation.

Reach the author at dave@kdlg.org, or by calling 907-842-5281.