Recruiting ‘wives’ to spread fentanyl across Alaska

California inmate spun a drug web that reached remote corners of the state, officials say By Matthew Ormseth

As Sunday Powers drove along a remote highway in Alaska, her boss tracked her every move from 3,000 miles away. A former Girl Scout raised in a town called North Pole, population 2,427, Powers had gotten involved in the drug business. She sold blue fentanyl pills and smuggled money for a dealer in California, according to court documents and interviews.

Powers had never met her boss, Heraclio Sanchez Rodriguez — he had been serving a life sentence in the California prison system since 1998. Authorities charge that Sanchez ran one of the largest drug trafficking organizations in Alaska history without ever setting foot in the state.

Using contraband cellphones, Sanchez spun a web that stretched from Mexico to Los Angeles to far-flung Alaska villages, authorities say. Flights carried women traveling with drugs and cash. Packages stuffed with fentanyl pills flowed through the U.S. postal system. 

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