INFORMATION RELEASE

On about 04/25/2025, investigators with the Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs (SEACAD) task force identified a suspicious package being shipped to Wrangell. The package was determined to contain 88 grams of methamphetamine.

On April 30th, 2025, the package was delivered in Wrangell and picked up by the recipient, 29-year-old Wrangell resident Justin G. Churchill. Churchill walked a short distance away and got into a Ford pickup, being driven by 29-year-old Wrangell resident Richard J. Eklund. Both men drove to a residence in the 100 block of Howell Way and met up with 29-year-old Cooper J. Seimears. Soon afterwards, all three men drove away from the area. Eklund and Churchill left in the Ford pickup, and Seimears left in a Chevrolet pickup.

SEACAD followed the vehicles to a logging road off of Ishyama Drive, where investigators contacted the occupants of the vehicles and detained them regarding this investigation. Churchill and Eklund were contacted near their vehicle, and Seimears was contacted nearby in the Chevrolet pickup.

During the investigation, SEACAD seized 88 grams of methamphetamine from the package, which has a street value of approximately $17,600.

Seimears, Churchill, and Eklund were all placed under arrest and taken to the Wrangell Police Department jail on the charge of misconduct involving a controlled substance in the 3rd degree, a class B felony offense.

SEACAD, Southeast Alaska Cities Against Drugs, is a regional task force comprised of municipal police departments from Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, Haines, Skagway, Petersburg, Hoonah, Wrangell, Craig and Yakutat, the Alaska State Troopers, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, United States Postal Inspection Service, and Coast Guard Investigative Service. Together, they work to investigate drug importation and distribution in the Southeast Alaska region.