Authorities say warehouses and land bought by drug smugglers who made millions of dollars by bringing marijuana into Alaska from British Columbia are going on the auction block.
One of the items to be auctioned off Thursday was an Anchorage warehouse once used to unload hundreds of pounds of marijuana, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
The drug smuggling operation was started by Anchorage real-estate investor Thomas Cody and his partner Joe Bryant, according to federal court documents. Authorities say the drug ring made at least $10 million between 2000 and 2006.
The operation ended with Cody being murdered, Bryant dead in a suicide and co-conspirators Thomas Ranes and Dennis Shine in prison.
Thursday's auction was the last chapter in the doings of the notorious drug smuggling operation, as the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department sell off property the drug dealers used to launder money, authorities said. Many of the smugglers' vehicles have already been sold.
For example, there was the souped-up golf cart with a bright yellow paint job, emblazoned in red with a picture of Medusa's head. There was a Hummer H2 with six TV screens inside, painted orange and pink, which towed a matching Malibu Wakesetter boat on a trailer.
Someone from Alabama bought the Hummer at a Florida auction and found $150,000 hidden in an air bag, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Russo. The new owner was allowed to keep the money.
There was a motor home, and race cars, trucks, jet skis, ATVs and snowmachines.
The smugglers also bought land, including 29 acres on the east side of Anchorage. The federal government agreed to sell the property to the city in 2006 for a net profit of $3.1 million, according to the prosecutor.
"What initially tipped off the troopers was they were depositing money that smelled like marijuana in local banks," Russo said. "Some of the money was literally laundered, meaning that they had put it through washing machines to try to get the smell out, and so it was dried and it was all crinkled, like if you ever put money in your clothes dryer."
Federal investigators uncovered more than 100 deposits, each for thousands of dollars, in a joint account for Ranes and Shine Automotive, a shop the co-conspirators owned together not far from the property being sold Thursday.
When they raided the warehouses and the automotive shop in April 2006, the authorities found about 10 guns, flatbed trucks with hidden compartments, and 347 pounds of marijuana, Russo said.
Soon after, Bryant shot and killed himself. Cody went missing. His body was found in 2007 in Jim Creek.
Shine said in court that he killed Cody and took over the operation, according to court documents. Ranes pleaded guilty in 2008 to conspiring to import marijuana and money laundering.
The property now to be auctioned is some of the last of the drug dealers' holdings to be sold. It includes three warehouses and eight undeveloped plots of land.
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