Found passed out at the wheel, "drooling on himself," convicted felon recently banished from Togiak was in possession of 1.4 grams heroin, a concealed pink handled pistol, and close to $8,000 cash. Moore was admittedly "high on the supply," says DPD.
Dillingham Police arrested a Manokotak man recently banished from Togiak for suspected drug dealing. Ty Anthony Moore, 26. was found Sunday with more than a gram of heroin, pills, two weapons, and $8000 cash. DPD is seeing a concerning trend of people banished from Togiak for drug dealing setting up shop in Dillingham.
Audio Transcript: DPD Chief Dan Pasquariello was woken up Sunday morning by his night shift, who reported they had just nabbed a suspected heroin dealer during a routine patrol.
"Sunday night at about 4:00 a.m., officer Bill Yates noticed a blue pickup truck parked at the Boat Harbor," said the chief. "It’s engine was running, it appeared to have been there a while, and he went up to investigate. He found a man passed out drooling on himself in the driver’s seat."
That man was 26-year-old Ty Moore, who, when woken, was asked by Yates to step out of the vehicle for a pat down.
"He felt a handgun in the pocket of the man’s pants. He removed the handgun which was a silver .22 caliber pistol with pink, sparkly grips," Pasquariello.
While the officers were slightly amused by the effeminate gun, they found nothing funny about this alleged dealer being armed, a trend not commonly seen by police in Dillingham. The pistol was loaded and had a round in the chamber. A pellet gun was found underneath the driver’s seat.
Moore is a convicted felon and was taken into custody for possessing those firearms. A further search at the jail turned up approximately 1.4 grams of black tar heroin, some pills, and close to $8000 cash. Moore admitted to being high on heroin.
In their investigation, DPD learned that Ty Moore was originally from Manokotak but had been living in Togiak until recently.
"We checked with Alaska State Troopers and they passed on information they received concerning this man’s alleged drug dealing activities," Pasquariello said. "We contacted the Togiak Tribal Police, who had seized heroin and methamphetamines off this man’s girlfriend, and marijuana off this man’s person. On February 2, the Togiak Traditional Council banished this man from the village."
According to the DPD report, Togiak Police officer Leroy Nanalook said Moore was “the number one drug dealer” in the village before his banishment, with a long list on incident reports on file locally. Togiak Police and Alaska State Troopers have been keeping an eye on Moore, his girlfriend Samantha Blue, and her sister Annie Blue, who have been making frequent trips to Dillingham and to Anchorage and are known to charter flights with cash and carry no luggage.
DPD believes these three are associates of Shania Clark, Kevin Harless, and others who have set up shop in Dillingham, often inside a rented house downtown on Main Street.
Dillingham, says Pasquariello, is becoming the blue ticket destination of choice, or necessity, for those booted from neighboring communities to the west.
"Togiak Tribal Court and Tribal Police have been aggressively targeting drug dealers in the village of Togiak and, through their tribal process, banished the people, or give the threat of banishment. When those people leave Togiak, unfortunately they usually end up here in Dillingham."
Ty Moore was arraigned on a felony drug trafficking charge, as well as two weapons misconduct charges. The state asked for a high bail amount of $50,000. Magistrate Judge Tina Reigh set it instead at $15,000 plus a third party custodian. Moore retained Anchorage defense attorney Rex Butler to represent him in the case.
Reach the author at dave@kdlg.org or 907-842-5281.