Feds hot over pot

WASILLA — Federal prosecutors are seeking ownership of a Wasilla home after breaking up what they say was a marijuana trafficking ring to bring “B.C. Bud” from Canada to Alaska.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Anchorage announced this past week that David Knutson, 36, of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Alaska residents Patrick N. McIlvain, 31, Rachel H. Ross, 32, Donald K. Johnston, 46, and James C. Adams II, 39, have been charged with conspiring to import drugs, marijuana trafficking, money laundering and four other federal counts.

The federal indictment says the group agreed to bring 80 to 150 pounds of marijuana, a strain called B.C. Bud, across the Alaska-Canada border periodically from January 2004 until March 2007.

The indictment sites two shipments in particular — 60 pounds sent from Yukon Territory to Alaska on Dec. 1, 2004, and 80 pounds sent Feb. 5, 2005.

Alaska State Troopers’ Mat-Su Narcotics Team, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, the Anchorage Police Department and IRS investigators worked the case, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“We are often brought in to non-tax-related investigations in order to help take the profit out of crime,” IRS special Agent Dan Wardlaw said.

Sgt. Rob Langendorfer with the Mat-Su Narcotics Team, when asked Friday about the case, said the bust was “significant,” but referred calls to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The conspirators would drive the marijuana from Canada to Alaska on snowmachines in the winter and in secret compartments of Airstream trailers and inflatable boats in the summer, according to the indictment. Money, as much as $200,000, would be sent back to Knutson as payment, either on commercial flights or in the same compartments in which the marijuana was sent.

McIlvain and Adams agreed to pay Knutson $3,400 per pound of marijuana, which they would turn around and sell in Alaska for $3,900-$4,000 per pound, the indictment says. Prosecutors are asking to seize proceeds of the marijuana trafficking, including a $10,000 1995 Hitachi Excavator Knutson and McIlvain bought in Eagle River allegedly with marijuana proceeds and a Wasilla home on Hiett Drive.

At the house Saturday, no cars were in the driveway, which leads to a quiet residential street. Yellow signs warned of snowmachines crossing.

The indictment says Knutson, McIlvain and Ross had 90 pounds of marijuana and $331,179 in cash from the sale of the B.C. Bud at the Wasilla home on Dec. 20, 2006.

As of Friday, none of the indicted individuals had been taken into custody, Wardlaw said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.