U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder announced the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) executed a series of search warrants as part of ‘Operation Cold Snap,’ resulting in federal charges against 16 individuals for federal firearm and drug trafficking crimes.
The operation further resulted in the recovery of 82 illegal firearms, some of which were stolen; approximately seven pounds of methamphetamine, and approximately 300 grams of heroin. According to Mr. Schroder, this was the largest firearms seizure in a federal case in Alaska that he could remember.
A huge level of interdepartmental cooperation went into Operation Cold Snap, led by the ATF Anchorage Field Office, assisted by the Anchorage Police Department, the Alaska State Troopers, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshall’s Service, the Anchorage Airport Police, and the Coast Guard Investigative Service.
ATF Special Agent in Charge Darek Pleasants: “This is not a federal government success. This is not an ATF success. This is an Alaska success, where we’re going to be able to remove some violent narcotics traffickers from the community and hopefully return some property back to your fellow Alaskans.”
During the course of the investigation, several leads were generated from ATF’s National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN). NIBIN is the only national network that allows for the capture and comparison of ballistic evidence to aid in solving and preventing violent crime involving firearms.
These cases were investigated as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the Department of Justice’s program allowing a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.
The arrests in Operation Cold Snap were individuals from Anchorage and Wasilla.