KDLG: Dillingham Police charged a 22-year-old woman with possession of methamphetamine, and the same woman was charged with importation of alcohol to Togiak, a dry village.
Shania Clark has been a person of interest to law enforcement in Togiak, but not in Dillingham. The house she was staying in has been of interest to police, however, and a search warrant was served there the evening of January 16 looking for a firearm involved in an armed burglary case.
"There's a house in the downtown area that we received countless reports of drug activity in, and it was fairly obvious by the persons going there that drug activity was occurring in this house," Chief Dan Pasquariello said. That house is directly across from the N&N Market and belongs to Fred Nielsen, who has been renting it since relocating to Anchorage.
The firearm was not found in the Nielsen house that evening. What Pasquariello and his officers did find was the sad surroundings of a drug den.
"We observed needles, cotton balls, all type of paraphernalia associated with the use of heroin," he said. One officer went into the crawl space and found a mattress with several spoons and other paraphernalia. The house was in poor condition, and anything of value appeared to have been removed.
When they rounded up the handful of current occupants, all suspected users or small time dealers, Clark was seen trying to hide a sunglasses case. It was found to "contain folded tin foil, small dirty cotton balls, a spoon with burn marks on the bottom, and pen tube which has been modified into a pipe," according to a police report. Folded inside some of the foil was a substance that tested positive as methamphetamine.
Police charged with her with possession of a class IA controlled substance, which is now a class A misdemeanor crime.
That was the evening of Monday, January 16. Earlier that day, Togiak Police Officer Leroy Nanalook had contacted Clark at the airport, according to an affidavit filed by state trooper David Eastwood-Koleszar.
"Shaina had traveled to Togiak on a chartered aircraft. Shaina had with her a bag which she refused to allow TPO Nanalook to search. TPO Nanalook said that Shaina was given keys to Fred Nielsen's residence in Dillingham and got back on the chartered aircraft. Shaina was given the keys by Kevin Harless, who TPO Nanalook has received complaints about Kevin Harless being involved in narcotic distribution," the trooper wrote.
That same bag, allegedly, was obtained by Dillingham Police at Nielsen's house later that day and searched per the terms of a warrant. It contained five bottles of R&R whiskey.
Troopers filed a felony charge of alcohol importation.
Reach the author at dave@kdlg.org or 907-842-5281.