Alaska Native leaders target alcohol smuggling

Friday, April 20, 2007  

Alaska Native leaders hope to send a strong message to people who want to smuggle alcohol into dry villages.

The Tanana Chiefs Conference and Doyon, an Alaska Native regional corporation, joined the Fairbanks Airport Police Department in dumping 48 gallons of alcohol seized in 2006. It took almost a half hour to empty all of the bottles that were brought on flights to Fairbanks.

Orie Williams, Doyon’s president and chief executive officer, said alcohol destroys families and communities. He said he has been sober for more than two decades.

Smuggling is a big business in rural Alaska. An $11 bottle of whiskey can be sold for ten times that amount, Fairbanks officers said.

Get the Story:
Bootlegged booze dumped as part of alcohol seizure (The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner 4/20)

$rl Tanana Chiefs Conference - http://www.tananachiefs.org