Sitka Police Department makes drug arrest, seizes cocaine street valued at $24,140

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Friday, March 24, 2023 at 3:59 PM

By Jasz Garrett

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Michael Souza (Photo courtesy of Sitka Police Department)

Sitka, Alaska (KINY) - Michael Souza was arrested on two felony counts of Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree and one count of Misconduct Involving a Controlled Substance in the Fifth Degree.

On Mar. 14 the Sitka Police Department received information from the Alaska State Troopers that a Sitka resident would be flying into Sitka on a commercial airline with a controlled substance.

Officers applied for a search warrant and on Mar. 18 SPD officers made contact with 44-year-old Michael Souza as he exited the jetway.

A search of his personal belongings revealed approximately 8.8 grams of cocaine.

Also located in his belongings was a USPS receipt for a package mailed from another state to Souza in Sitka.

A search warrant was granted for the USPS package and approximately 111.9 grams of cocaine were found to be in the package.

The approximate street value of all the cocaine recovered is $24,140.

Souza is currently being held at the Sitka Jail on $10,000 bail.

Serena Wild is the Executive Assistant and the P.I.O. with SPD. She added this is more cocaine than they regularly see.

"Here in Sitka we regularly have a few arrests a month regarding drugs," she said. "This is usually more cocaine than we see. We are sending it off to the state crime lab to see if it does have some fentanyl in it as well."

Those results could take one to two weeks, Wild said.

The Sitka Police Department is partnered with Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs Task Force (SEACAD) and the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program.

"Luckily we just got some good information from fellow law enforcement agencies and we were able to act on that information and get some of the drugs off the street," Wild commented.

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