Sitka drug ring involved violent intimidation, authorities say

Sitka drug ring involved violent intimidation, authorities say

Juneau resident Eric Stephen Morisky, 30, also known as “Curly,” was one of seven people indicted in April on charges of possessing and distributing heroin and methamphetamine in Sitka, according to a release from the Alaska Department of Justice.

The group of seven includes four people from Sitka and two people from Las Cruces, New Mexico, authorities say. According to the indictment filed April 17, the seven are accused of conspiring to distribute heroin and meth in Sitka between May 2, 2017 and April 3, 2018.

All the defendants are charged with drug conspiracy and possession of firearms for drug trafficking purposes, the release states. Las Cruces resident 32-year-old Christina Reyna “Lete” Quintana and 36-year-old Sitka resident Porter Wayne Treadway are also charged with illegally possessing firearms as felons, the indictment says.

The seven members appeared in federal court in Juneau this Tuesday, the release states. The release alleges that Quintana and 22-year-old Las Cruces resident Andrea Rose “Josie” Avalos got drugs from California and New Mexico to distribute in Sitka. Authorities say Avalos and Quintana intimidated other members of the drug ring by saying they were members of a larger drug trafficking ring.

All seven members of the conspiracy, the release says, had guns to help their trafficking activities, including collecting debts from others.

The indictment goes in-depth in describing the process of collecting a debt from two people identified as Victim A and Victim B in March 2018. Victim A, according to the indictment, owed more than $16,000 to the operators of the drug ring.

Avalos, Quintana, Treadway and Sitka resident Peter George “Lil’ Pete” Krovina, 39, ransacked the home of the two victims in Sitka, the indictment alleges, to collect a debt. They discovered two guns, the indictment says, but they weren’t done there.

The indictment alleges that while one member of the conspiracy, 25-year-old Sitkan Holly Christine Chambers, took Victim A and Victim B’s children out for ice cream, Quintana and Treadway set up a meeting with the two victims at their home. Once they were at the home of the two victims, Quintana shot Victim A in both legs with a 10mm Glock pistol (one of the guns taken from the victims) and Treadway attacked Victim B with a claw hammer until Victim B was unconscious, according to the indictment.

Krovina was waiting outside the home with a shotgun (the other gun they stole from the home), the indictment details, and then left with a suitcase full of Victim A and Victim B’s possessions. They then called Sitka resident Aaron Keith Didrickson, 29, according to the indictment, who picked up Avalos, Quintana and Treadway from the scene.

Morisky, authorities say, lived aboard an unpowered boat called the M/V Rubato and hid Avalos and Quintana on the boat while he coordinated a way to get them from Sitka to Juneau. According to online court records, Morisky was arrested April 23 in Sitka.

According to online court records, trial in this case is scheduled for July 9, 2018 in federal court in Juneau before judge Timothy M. Burgess.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the Sitka Police Department conducted the investigation, the release says, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service (USMS), leading to the indictment in this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack S. Schmidt is prosecuting the case, according to the release.

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• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.