Crime

20 pounds of meth sailed from Bellingham on a ferry, rolled into burritos

The Alaskan Marine Highway ferry M/V Columbia arrives at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal in 2010. A duffel bag with 20 pounds of meth was seized when the ferry docked in Ketchikan, KRBD-FM reported Monday, Feb. 20.
The Alaskan Marine Highway ferry M/V Columbia arrives at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal in 2010. A duffel bag with 20 pounds of meth was seized when the ferry docked in Ketchikan, KRBD-FM reported Monday, Feb. 20. The Bellingham Herald

Police in southeast Alaska arrested three people and confiscated more than $1 million in methamphetamine and the deadly opioid fentanyl, according to court documents and an Alaskan radio station.

A duffel bag with 20 pounds of meth — rolled inside tortillas like a burrito — was seized when the MV Columbia docked in Ketchikan, KRBD-FM reported Monday, Feb. 20.

Columbia is one of several ferries that run the waters of the Inside Passage to Bellingham and back as part of the Alaska Marine Highway system.

An Oregon man boarded the Columbia in Bellingham, and was arrested in Ketchikan, where a police officer and a detective stayed with the bag until the ferry docked in Juneau, KRBD reported.

There, two more people were arrested and police found another half-pound of meth, 150 pills of suspected fentanyl, and nine firearms, KRBD-FM reported.

This story was originally published February 23, 2023 at 10:51 AM.

Robert Mittendorf
The Bellingham Herald
Robert Mittendorf covers civic issues, weather, traffic and how people are coping with the high cost of housing for The Bellingham Herald. A journalist since 1984, he also served 22 years as a volunteer firefighter for South Whatcom Fire Authority before retiring in 2025.
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