California Prisoner Allegedly Ran Alaska Drug Ring from His Cell
At a status conference in federal court for the District of Alaska on December 9, 2024, prosecutors obtained a six-month continuance for “voluminous discovery and scheduling” in the case of Heraclio Sanchez Rodriguez, a California state prisoner who allegedly managed to run a drug-trafficking network from his cell at Salinas Valley State Prison that stretched between his native Mexico and remote fishing villages in the rugged state known as “the Last Frontier.”
Sanchez Rodriguez, 57, has been imprisoned since 1998 on a “third-strike” conviction for possessing a gun as a felon. Since then, prosecutors allege, he has used contraband cellphones to construct a network distributing fentanyl obtained from the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico to Alaskan villages populated mainly by Indigenous fishery laborers.
The leg work for the operation was allegedly provided by mules and enforcers, mostly women whom Sanchez Rodriguez called “wives.” One of them, Tamara Bren, 41, was indicted with him for conspiring in the murders of two others, Sunday Powers and Kami Clark, whose whereabouts were tracked by Sanchez Rodriguez from his cell using a contraband cellphone.
Another co-conspirator indicted with them, Kevin Peterson, 29, was allegedly heard on a tapped cellphone call in which Sanchez Rodriguez ordered him to retaliate against another errant mule “wife” by throwing acid on her. The woman was reportedly not harmed. The three are among 53 people indicted so far in what prosecutors called “one of the biggest drug trafficking rings harming Alaska communities in the history of our state.” See: United States v. Sanchez-Rodriguez, USDC (D. Alaska), Case No. 3:23-cr-00090.
Additional source: KTUU, Los Angeles Times
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Related legal case
United States v. Sanchez-Rodriguez
| Year | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (D. Alaska), Case No. 3:23-cr-00090 |
| Level | District Court |
| Conclusion | Bench Verdict |