Firearms and counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl seized by law enforcement agents in Alaska are shown in this undated photo. The volume of drugs seized this year at Anchorage’s airport was nearly twice that seized last year. (Photo provided by the Alaska State Troopers)
Alaska officials seized more than 317 pounds of illegal drugs at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in 2024, about a third of which was fentanyl, a synthetic narcotic responsible for an epidemic of overdose deaths, law enforcement authorities said Thursday.
The volume of dangerous drugs seized at the airport complex this year, 143,911 grams, was nearly twice the amount confiscated in 2023, continuing a trend of increasing volumes of drugs intercepted there in recent years.
The volume of fentanyl seized this year amounted to 23 million potentially fatal doses, authorities said. Other drugs seized included cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, said Austin McDaniel, spokesperson for the Alaska State Troopers.
The seizures were conducted by 22 different federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that are partners in Alaska’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Initiative, or HIDTA. The drugs were found in various airport operations, including cargo, parcel, mail and passenger-carry, the troopers said. The total also includes drugs intercepted at Merrill Field, the smaller airport operated by the Municipality of Anchorage, McDaniel said.
The volume of drugs seized at the Anchorage airport is generally a little over half of the statewide total, McDaniel said.
Anchorage’s international airport is one of the world’s busiest air cargo hubs. In 2023, it ranked fourth globally in the volume of cargo handled. The total cargo volume passing through Anchorage in 2023 was 3.4 million metric tons, placing the Alaska airport behind Hong Kong, Memphis and Shanghai, according to the trade organization Airports Council International.
The High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program was created by Congress in 1988. The statewide Alaska initiative started in 2018 and is funded by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, the troopers said.
Through that initiative, Alaska State Troopers and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service have stepped up identification and interception of drugs going through the mail. The troopers, officers with the Anchorage Airport Police and Fire Department and other agencies have increased their work at airport passenger terminals. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska has also boosted its efforts to process search warrants targeting parcels sent through the mail, the troopers said.
“In 2024, our office assigned multiple attorneys to handle search warrants for U.S. Postal Service parcels suspected of containing illicit substances, quadrupling the number of search warrants processed compared to last year. Because of this prioritization and our strong partnership with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Alaska State Troopers, parcel drug seizures have increased, preventing large quantities of dangerous drugs from reaching our communities,” S. Lane Tucker, U.S. attorney for the District of Alaska, said in a statement released by the troopers.
“Alaska’s local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies are committed to doing our part to address the high rate of drug trafficking and overdose incidents occurring across our great state,” Alaska State Trooper Col. Maurice Hughes said in the statement.
Alaska has been particularly hard-hit by the national fentanyl epidemic, bucking the national trend of decreasing overdose deaths.
Alaska last year had a record number of drug overdose deaths, the majority of which were connected to fentanyl. Fatal overdoses jumped by 44.5% from 2022 to 2023, with 357 recorded – with more than half involving fentanyl, according to the state Department of Health. It was, by far, the biggest increase of all states.
In contrast, overdose deaths nationwide declined by 3% from 2022 to 2023, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Fatal overdose totals continued to increase in Alaska through the first half of 2024, according to the latest data available, which totals deaths for the 12 months that ended in July.
Alaska had 405 reported overdose deaths for that 12-month period, a 40.63% increase over the total for the previous 12-month period, according to the CDC’s preliminary figures. Alaska’s rate of increase was the highest in the nation for the period, and Alaska was one of only three states in which reported overdose deaths increased during that 12-month period, according to the CDC. Nevada and Utah were the only other states with reported increases in overdose deaths, according to the data.
Nationally, the number of reported overdose deaths declined by 19.3% from July 2023 to July 2024, according to the CDC’s preliminary data.
Of Alaska’s reported overdose deaths from July 2023 to June 2024, 338 involved opioids, according to the Alaska Department of Health.
The high death toll in Alaska has spurred action beyond law enforcement. The Alaska Department of Health has partnered with other entities to boost prevention education, and a new state law requires schools to be supplied with overdose-reversal kits.