Two Ketchikan men intend on pleading guilty Wednesday to one charge of drug conspiracy each, according to online court documents.
Neptali Yadao Dadia, 40, and 27-year-old Matthew Steven Speers were indicted on federal drug distribution charges by a Juneau grand jury this past October along with 32-year-old Jaypee Tolso Lorenzo, also of Ketchikan. According to online court documents, Dadia will be accepting a plea agreement in U.S. District Court on Wednesday. Lorenzo pleaded guilty in February, according to online court documents.
This is the second time in just over five years that Dadia has pleaded guilty to federal drug charges, admitting to possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it in a 2015 case. In that case, Dadia was sentenced to five years in prison and five years of supervised release.
According to the most recent plea agreement, the three men were part of a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in Ketchikan between Aug. 18-22, 2017. The three were arrested in Ketchikan on Oct. 24, 2017, according to an Alaska State Troopers dispatch. The plea agreement alleges the men coordinated the sale of meth in Ketchikan by working with a co-conspirator outside the country and another co-conspirator to ship meth up from Las Vegas to Ketchikan using commercial package delivery services.
According to the plea deal, Dadia would sell Speers one ounce of meth for $3,000, and Speers would then sell some of the meth before sending the remaining product to Lorenzo, who then delivered the drug proceeds and remaining drugs to Dadia. According to the agreement, the three men possessed at least 53 grams of meth with the intent to distribute it.
According to the Troopers dispatch, the investigation into the trio of Ketchikan residents began when a K-9 drug dog named Misty and the Alaska State Troopers’ Statewide Drug Enforcement Unit intercepted a package in Ketchikan that contained meth.
According to the plea agreement, Dadia faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, with the maximum penalty of life behind bars. Speers faces between five and 40 years in prison.
In a separate case, Ketchikan man Arthur Castillo, intends on pleading guilty to dealing heroin and meth, according to online court documents.
Castillo, 31, will plead guilty to one count of methamphetamine conspiracy, according to the plea deal, and a count of possession of firearms for drug trafficking will be dismissed. The plea agreement states that Castillo, along with Alfonso Francisco Sandoval Jr., conspired to distribute more than 750 grams (about 26.5 ounces) of meth and more than 75 grams of heroin in Ketchikan between June 1 and Oct. 3, 2017.
During the course of the conspiracy, according to the plea agreement, Castillo had $16,265 in drug proceeds and two firearms (an AM-15 rifle and a .44 Magnum revolver). Castillo set the price at $2,000 per ounce of meth for Ketchikan customers, according to the plea agreement.
Castillo faces between 10 years and life in prison, according to the plea agreement, with a maximum $10,000 fine.
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
