Life in prison for Valley meth importer

MAT-SU — For his role in importing the most methamphetamine seized at one time in Alaska’s history, a Wasilla pool hall owner received life in prison Friday.

Ricky Allen Reese, 52, was arrested Dec. 29, 2009, at the end of an investigation that began with a 1990 Chevy pickup with more than 300,000 miles on its odometer being shipped from Anchorage to Seattle with $12,000 inside on March 29, 2009.

Investigators followed the vehicle to California, where they started following a 2005 Ford Explorer associated with the person shipping the vehicle, Ronald Hall, who’d already been convicted previously of drug trafficking.

Hall made round trips into Mexico three days in a row in the Explorer then, in December 2009, put it on a barge heading to Anchorage. En route it was searched and 23 pounds of meth were found in a hidden compartment under the back seat.

The meth was removed and the vehicle left to travel to Anchorage. Hall flew north with an accomplice, Deja Steilen, to meet it. Agents eventually arrested Hall and Steilen when they opened up that compartment, as well as Jared Lisenby, who had picked them up at the airport.

The same day, investigators got a tip that Reese was ready to take delivery of the meth. He met his supplier, but by then the meth he was given had been replaced with an imitation. Federal agents swooped in at the Costco on Bragaw Road, where he showed up with $99,500 as a partial payment for the drugs.

Reese’s trial lasted three days in February. The life sentence was required by statute given his prior drug-trafficking convictions and the amount of meth involved in the case. Prosecutors estimate that if sold in ounces the 23 pounds would have fetched $1.2 million to $1.4 million.

Hall and Steilen were prosecuted in Washington state. Lisenby was sentenced to 72 months in prison. Prosecutors say that the meth originated in Mexico with Jason D. Hall, 37, formerly of Anchorage, who is wanted in the case but remains a fugitive.

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