Wasilla man sentenced for heroin

PALMER — A man caught red handed — almost literally — in a heroin bust late last year will serve more than seven years in federal prison, prosecutors announced Monday.

“Baretta Faatafuga, 38, of Wasilla, Alaska, previously pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute more than 1.6 kilograms of heroin throughout the Anchorage area. As part of his plea, Faatafuga admitted that in October 2013 he received an Express Mail package from California containing heroin that had been concealed inside a Sentry Safe. Faatafuga intended to distribute this heroin to others,” federal prosecutors wrote in a press release.

In court documents dating to around the time of his arrest, law enforcement writes that the heroin in question was intercepted in the mail and replaced with fake drugs and a tracking device authorities allowed to be delivered.

Faatafuga and another man — James Gwaltney — picked the package up at the Houston home to which it was delivered and took it to Rainbow Drive in Wasilla.

When authorities got the signal the package had been opened, they knocked on the door of the home and a 13-year-old girl answered. She told them that Faatafuga was involved in drugs and that he’d left. Gwaltney was found elsewhere on the property in a motorhome in which he sometimes lived.

As part of the repackaging of the intercepted box, law enforcement sprayed the fake heroin down with Clue Spray, which leaves an invisible residue on a package that transfers to people that handle it and glows under blacklight.

After they tracked him down, investigators found the telltale markings on Faatafuga’s hands. They didn’t find it on Gwaltney, but speculated his hands might have been too dirty for the residue to stick.

In addition to serving 90 months in prison, Faatafuga will have to forfeit two guns and $5,000 in cash and will be on supervised probation for five years following his release.

“In sentencing Faatafuga, Judge Gleason called the offense one of serious magnitude. She also commented on the negative impacts caused by bringing drugs into our community and noted that many families are destroyed by heroin. She indicated that Faatafuga’s sentence was designed to address the seriousness of his offense while also protecting the community from future crimes,” federal prosecutors wrote in a press release.

Gwaltney, meanwhile, has pleaded guilty to the same charge as Faatafuga — conspiracy to distribute more than a kilogram of heroin.

Sentencing was set for Dec. 4 but is poised to be pushed back at least a month according to a request his attorney filed Monday and which prosecutors didn’t oppose.

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