Troopers seize $19,000 in heroin; two arrested

Alaska State Troopers last week seized 1.15 ounces of heroin with an estimated street value of $19,000 in an arrest last week of an Anchor Point man and a Homer woman. Troopers also found $2,500 in cash, prescription drugs and paraphernalia relating to dealing after serving a search warrant on the woman’s car. 

Wade C. Thurmond, 24, of Anchor Point, and Monica C. Pelkey, 35, were each charged with second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, heroin, and fourth-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, prescription drugs, both felonies.

According to a criminal complaint, on May 17 at about 2 p.m. troopers went to a Mile 2.5 North Fork Road home after receiving information that Thurmond lived there. Thurmond had been wanted by his probation officer after the officer had been unable to find or contact him. Thurmond has prior convictions for second-degree robbery and introducing contraband in a 2009 hold up of the Anchor Point Warehouse.

Troopers Samuel Webber and John Probst found Thurmond and Pelkey in a white Chevrolet pickup truck registered to Pelkey near the home. Troopers detained Thurmond. Webber said Pelkey was trembling and hid her hands between her legs. When she showed him her hands, she had tin foil and a lighter, Webber wrote. 

In an interview with her, Webber said Pelkey told him she had bought about a quarter ounce of heroin for $1,800 from Thurmond. She claimed she wasn’t a dealer, but that “she does provide heroin to a select group of friends at no additional cost over the purchase price,” Webber wrote. She said the heroin was in a purse on the floorboard.

Troopers applied for and got a search warrant on the Chevrolet and Pelkey’s purse. Troopers said they found a large baggy with heroin, several small jewelry baggies containing heroin, an electronic scale and prescription drugs. Troopers also found a Louis Vitton purse belonging to another woman that had empty baggies, tin foil with burnt residue and more prescription drugs.

Troopers indentified the prescription drugs seized as Clonazepam, a drug used to treat anxiety and panic disorders, and Suboxone, a drug used to treat opiate addiction. Pelkey said she did not know anything about the controlled substances found in her pickup.

Adult probation also will be filing a petition to revoke Thurmond’s probation, Webber wrote in his complaint.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.