ANCHORAGE — An Alaska Department of Corrections officer suspected of a heroin-distribution plot at a state prison has been arrested on federal drug charges.
Adam Jason Spindler, 32, was taken into custody after a bag he carried to Goose Creek Correctional Center near Wasilla was found to contain 1.67 grams, or about 16 doses, of heroin.
Karen Loeffler, U.S. attorney for Alaska, said at a news conference that her office takes seriously cases of misconduct by officials. “The investigation of public corruption is a big deal to us,” she said.
State Corrections Commissioner Dean Williams called the arrest “a dark day for us,” but he said drug transactions represent a serious threat to both inmates and department staff.
The FBI began an investigation at the behest of the department’s new professional conduct unit.
Spiller was under surveillance Monday afternoon and spotted meeting with a suspected female drug courier in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant in Wasilla, Special Agent Richard Fuller said in an affidavit.
The woman got into Spindler’s pickup for less than a minute and left. Spindler drove to the prison to begin his 6 p.m. shift.
At the prison parking lot, Fuller said, Spindler spotted a Corrections Department “K-9” vehicle. Spindler told another corrections officer that he was carrying personal-use marijuana in a bag, Fuller said, and he did not want a drug-sniffing dog to detect it. The other officer offered to dispose of the bag.
Inside the prison, Spindler was detained and his truck was searched. No drugs were found.
The other officer, meanwhile, took a call that Spindler’s truck was being searched. He looked in the bag Spindler had handed him and found both pot and heroin. The second corrections officer turned the bag over to prison personnel.
The amount in the bag was a “distributable quantity,” Loeffler said, with an estimated street value of $800 to $1,600.
Spindler remained jailed Wednesday at the Anchorage jail.
Online court documents did not list an attorney for him.
A screengrab of Goose Creek Correctional Center near Wasilla, from the Alaska Department of Corrections website.
