With more than a kilogram of methamphetamine stuffed into frozen chicken carcasses, an Anchorage man flew from California to Alaska, where he was arrested Wednesday, according to a charging document.
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Sarn Teurn, 32, now faces a felony drug charge in federal court for possessing 1,230 grams of methamphetamine. The powerful stimulant was in plastic bags and shoved inside the body cavities of five thawing chickens, the charging document says.
Among those who helped bust Teurn were California detective Chris Rogers, his police dog, Maya, Alaska State Trooper Ricky Pawlak, Airport Police Officer Andres Gomez, and Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Rikk Rambo.
Pawlak, who wrote the charging affidavit, found out March 20 that Teurn bought a one-way ticket to fly from Sacramento, Calif. to Anchorage. It’s unclear from the charging document why he was tracking Teurn’s movements.
Detective Rogers and Maya apparently trailed Teurn to an airport in Sacramento, Calif., on Tuesday. According to the charges, Teurn checked two pieces of luggage for his Alaska Airlines flight: a black bag and a blue plastic tote with a “FROZEN” sticker on it.
Maya sniffed the bag and tote away from Teurn’s view, the charges say. She ignored the bag and alerted Rogers to the odor of drugs in the tote. Teurn, his bag and the tote went on the plane. In Alaska, Trooper Pawlak went to work getting a warrant to search Teurn and his items.
Agent Rambo, Officer Gomez and Pawlak met Teurn at his arrival gate about 1:15 a.m. Wednesday in Anchorage. They told him about the search warrant and took him to a police office in the airport, the charges say.
Pawlak opened the tote and found five partially frozen chicken carcasses, he wrote. Each had a bag of methamphetamine inside, for a total 1,230.3 grams. The weight indicated Teurn intended to sell the drug, Pawlak wrote.
“Moreover, based upon my own experience, the placement of any amount of methamphetamine in the five chickens was not accidental and would not have escaped the attention of anyone who had packed them into the tote,” Pawlak wrote.
Teurn said he packed the tote but that he didn’t know anything about the methamphetamine, the charges say.
“He did, however, say that a person who he declined to identify, had offered to pay him $2500.00 to transport the tote to Alaska,” Pawlak wrote.
