Nicholas Tinker and Gust Romie accused of selling heroin to police informants, and Libby Burton charged with possession, intent to distribute cocaine.
This week the Dillingham Police Department filed felony drug charges against three people in three separate cases. As KDLG's Dave Bendinger reports, the allegations stem from police efforts to use confidential informants to make controlled drug buys since last winter.
Audio transcript:
Libby Burton, 25, Gust Romie, 27, and Nicholas Tinker, 36, are each facing a count of misconduct involving a controlled substance in the second degree, a class A felony charge.
Dillingham police allege Romie and Tinker each sold heroin to a confidential informant; Romie back in March, and Tinker in June. The cases have overseen by Department Chief Dan Pasquariello.
"The events leading to the charges are several months old," he said. "Frequently, when we develop informants, we try to use the informant for as long as we can, so that we can try to make as many prosecutable cases as we can."
According to Pasquariello, if police file charges against a dealer too soon after a successful controlled purchase, the identity of the confidential informant will likely be revealed. This is especially true within the tight knit community of users and sellers.
The confidential informants who are willing to make drug buys are right now the most valuable asset the Department has to interrupt the town’s drug trade. But those willing few are also hard to come by. The CI’s are safer, and useful to more investigations, the longer their identities remains unknown.
"The police will do our best to keep people anonymous," said Pasquariello. "But this is America, people have a right to defend [against] their accusers, and once stuff gets to court, we can't guarantee that their name won't be used. But even if it is, we feel that the community, rather than looking down on these people as a 'narc', should be embracing these people and saying, 'that's someone with the courage to help stop the heroin problem here in Dillingham.'"
Attempting to use confidential informants for more than one buy means months may pass before the dealer, or the public, realize the police have made a drug bust they can take to court. The lag time can cast doubts on the Department's ability to curb the concerning rate of drug abuse in town. Pasquariello says it is a careful process to receive information, recruit informants, set up a buy, and eventually file charges.
"Informants don't grow on trees. When we get an informant who is willing to go past the step of providing us with information and actually take money from us, go up to a heroin dealer, purchase heroin so that person can be prosecuted, we try to use those informants for as long as we can."
The Department does not have a dedicated drug investigator, and the state trooper WAANT investigator position has not been staffed in-region for a year. Pasquariello's officers work on drug cases in between more routine police calls, so he cites four individuals charged with selling heroin to police CI's this year as good progress.
"We feel that everyone who sells heroin in Dillingham is a major player," he said.
Libby Burton’s charge dates to February; police allege she was in possession of .8 grams of cocaine she said was for a friend. Pasquariello did not elaborate on Burton's connection to ongoing investigations, or why there was a seven month delay before she was charged.
While the three cases are separate, Pasquariello said there are connections.
"All three of these individuals are connected to what we like to refer to as the 'heroin milieu' here in town."
On Thursday, Libby Burton was arraigned and Nicholas Tinker was arrested. A warrant has been issued for Gust Romie's arrest.