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PETERSBURG-AK The on-going investigation involves local officers and members of the regional law enforcement task force Southeast Cities Against Drugs. Police Chief Jim Agner said the officers intercepted the recipient of the package after that person had picked it up from the post office. He said the seizure is part of a broader, complex investigation into what he alleged was a &ldquo;syndicate&rdquo; with ties to organized crime inside and outside the US.<br />
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Agner said, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re working on an investigation that&rsquo;s part of a crime syndicate that&rsquo;s bringing this much up regularly. I would say this is less than one months supply. It could be significantly less than one months supply&hellip;from this one syndicate only.&rdquo; <br />
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According to Agner, the drugs had a street value of 54 thousand dollars. He said the heroin and meth was uncut, which means it had not yet been mixed with other substances to increase its volume for street sale. Agner said the latest case is related to one last January in which federal, state and local authorities reported the seizure of a Petersburg-bound package containing four ounces of heroin and two ounces of cocaine in Seattle&hellip;..as well as a package with lesser amounts of heroin and meth at the post office in Petersburg. Agner said that case was still under investigation as is this latest one. <br />
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&nbsp;&ldquo;This is a very complex case that is not just local. It&rsquo;s fairly large scale. We are working closely with the feds and so that&rsquo;s pretty much why this is continuing. This is part of that same investigation. The most important point here is that we certainly have stopped a very large quantity of heroin and meth from being on the streets in Petersburg, &quot; he said.<br />
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Agner said the department is seeing a significant increase in the use of heroine in town, mainly among people between 16 and 30 years old. <br />
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Agner credited the public for providing tips that helped result in the search warrant for this latest seizure. He encouraged anyone with information, no matter how minor it may seem, to come forward. <br />
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UPDATE: Police later announced they had arrested 37-year-old Juan Carlos Murillo-Garcia in connection with the case on Tuesday and charged him with drug possession. <br />
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