About $42,700 worth of suspected illegal drugs and more than $2,000 in cash were seized by officials from a Juneau hotel room where a man was also arrested on Friday, according to the Juneau Police Department.
A suspicious package being mailed to Juneau was intercepted Jan. 1 by Southeast Cites Against Drugs (SEACAD), according to a JPD information release published Wednesday.
“During the investigation, SEACAD located items believed to be related to the use and distribution of controlled substances,” the release notes.
The package was picked up at a Juneau post office on Friday by an unidentified recipient, who was contacted by officers at the hotel in the 1200 block of 9th Street, according to JPD. A man with the recipient, Braedon Joshua Marrs, 36, who was holding the package when officers arrived, was arrested on multiple charges and taken to Lemon Creek Correctional Center.
The person who picked up the package — and who it was addressed to — was not arrested at the time, according to Erann Kalwara, a JPD spokesperson.
“The investigation is ongoing and other subjects may be charged,” she wrote in an email to the Empire.
She declined to specify which items seized by police were in the package. The suspected illegal substances listed in the release are 24 grams of suspected methamphetamines, three grams of suspected cocaine, 54 grams of suspected heroin, 102 grams of blue M-30 pills suspected to contain fentanyl, 13 grams of suspected fentanyl powder and 36 grams of unknown suspected controlled substance. Two digital scales commonly used for weighing controlled substances and a large quantity of “dime bags” commonly used for packaging controlled substances were also seized.
Marrs was arrested on three counts of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance (a Class A felony) and one count of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance (a Class B felony).
A felony first appearance at the Juneau Courthouse on Saturday increased the charges to five counts of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, along with the third-degree count and a misdemeanor charge of violating conditions of release, according to the Alaska Court System’s online database. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Friday.
Marrs has an open case from August of last year involving three charges of fifth-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, a Class A misdemeanor, with a jury trial scheduled Feb. 18 at the Ketchikan Courthouse.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
