With fewer than 1,000 residents, Sand Point is the kind of place where people know each other by name, and where the rhythms of life are shaped by the sea. On Popof Island at the entrance to the Bering Sea, the community is home to the largest commercial fishing fleet in the Aleutians. Almost half its residents are of Aleut descent and summers bring an influx of workers when commercial salmon fishing is in full swing.
For a town this size, the arrival of thousands of fentanyl pills and other narcotics has devastating consequences. Yet according to federal prosecutors, Sand Point was one of several Alaska communities targeted by a drug trafficking ring that spanned from Mexico to Anchorage and through correctional facilities in Alaska.
Last week, Richard Frye, 36, of Anchorage, pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to distribute fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin on behalf of the organization, allegedly run by a California inmate…