Two men who conspired to distribute methamphetamine in Kodiak have been sentenced to federal prison, and one could face deportation once his sentence in completed.
Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess handed down the sentences on Friday, Feb. 5, for Carlito Marcilino Velasco, 61, of Juneau, and Don Irenio Castro Santiago II, a citizen of the Phiippines residing in Anchorage.
Velasco, who has a lengthy criminal record, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release. He pled guilty to drug trafficking in January 2020. Santiago was sentenced to 23 months in federal prison.
Court documents show that Velasco purchased meth from sources in California for distribution in Alaska and mailed it to Juneau, where a co-conspirator repackaged it and mailed it via the U.S. Post Office to Santiago in Kodiak. Santiago then distributed the meth and sent the proceeds back to Juneau to be used by Velasco to purchase more meth for sale in Kodiak.
On or about June 4, 2019, postal inspectors intercepted a suspicious package mailed from Juneau to Kodiak and found 233.45 grams of meth hidden inside a coffee bag. Law enforcement officers removed the narcotics and installed two tracking devices in the package.
After the parcel was delivered to a residential parcel locker in Kodiak, Velasco and Santiago retrieved it, found the tracking device and hid the parcel under a pile of lumber.
They were subsequently taken into custody by officers with South East Alaska Cities Against Drugs Taskforce. The pair purportedly had successfully imported four other packages into Kodiak in the same manner, introducing over 680 grams of meth into the community.
