Photo courtesy Gabe Fletcher This photo from Alaska Brewing Company owner Gabe Fletcher shows a King Fisher boat named "Celestial Dawn" that was taken from outside the brewing company in Anchorage and found in Soldotna on Monday, March 28, 2016.

Photo courtesy Gabe Fletcher This photo from Alaska Brewing Company owner Gabe Fletcher shows a King Fisher boat named "Celestial Dawn" that was taken from outside the brewing company in Anchorage and found in Soldotna on Monday, March 28, 2016.

Stolen boat leads police to group storing drugs, firearms

Residents from Alaska and California have been arrested in Soldotna on drug and firearm charges after being connected to a stolen boat from Anchorage.

Gabe Fletcher, owner of Anchorage Brewing Company, said his stepfather’s King Fisher boat named “Celestial Dawn” was stolen from outside the brewery on Easter Sunday.

“We found out at 8 (p.m.),” Fletcher said.

After he called the Anchorage Police Department, Fletcher said he took to the Anchorage Brewing Company Facebook page, posting pictures and a description of the boat and asking the online community to keep an eye out for it. Soon, he said, calls came in with people reporting sightings of the boat along its path from Anchorage to Soldotna, one of them being Bing’s Landing.

Soldotna Police got a tip around 8 a.m. Monday morning that the 28-foot boat was in a parking lot near Mykel’s Restaurant, said Soldotna Police Chief Peter Mlynarik.

“Then we contacted occupants of a room that we connected to the boat, and inside the room firearms and drug paraphernalia were observed so we got a search warrant for the room,” Mlynarik said.

California residents Ashley Rubalcaba, 30, and Jesse Larosa, 35, along with 24-year-old Samantha L. Griffiths of Anchorage and 37-year-old Anthony Hanson of Petersburg, were all arrested in connection with the case. They face a mix of charges ranging from misconduct involving weapons and controlled substances to forgery and impersonation.

In the room at the Soldotna Inn, police found 150 grams of black tar heroin, street valued at $75,000, about 90 grams of meth valued at $18,000, more than two ounces of marijuana, $10,000 cash, fraudulent identification cards and drug paraphernalia, Mlynarik said. Police also found six firearms, two of which had previously been reported as stolen, he said.

The stolen boat will remain an Anchorage case, Mlynarik said. Local investigators still have leads they need to follow up with to ensure they have everyone involved in the incident, he said.

Fletcher drove to Soldotna Monday to return his stepfather’s boat, which was not damaged. He said the boat would have been hard to take.

“We had a big deadbolt on the trailer hitch and you have to have the right kind of truck to pull this thing,” Fletcher said.

Alaska State Troopers assisted Soldotna Police in the investigation, Mlynarik said.

 

Reach Megan Pacer at megan.pacer@peninsulaclarion.com.

More in News

Seward City Clerk Kris Peck, right, administers an oath of office to Seward City Council newcomer Casie Warner during a council meeting in Seward, Alaska, on Oct. 28, 2024. (Screenshot courtesy City of Seward)
Seward City Council swears in winners of October municipal election

They were sworn in two weeks after the council certified its election results

Duane Bannock speaks to the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly in Soldotna, Alaska, on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Borough’s tourism industry working group takes shape

The group will explore the effects of a potential bed tax

Assembly Member Peter Ribbens speaks during a meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly in Soldotna, Alaska, on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Ribbens, Cooper named new heads of borough assembly

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly reorganized during their Oct. 22 meeting

A special weather statement for the western Kenai Peninsula was issued Monday by the National Weather Service. The area will see strong gusty winds and rain late tonight and through Tuesday morning. A winter storm warning remains in effect from 3 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday for areas of the eastern peninsula. (Image via weather.gov)
Windy weather heads for western Kenai Peninsula

The western Kenai Peninsula will experience some windy and wet conditions Tuesday and Wednesday.

Lisa Gabriel, left, watches as beach seine nets are pulled from the waters of Cook Inlet at a test site for the gear near Kenai, Alaska, on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Board of Fish to consider set beach seines for east side setnet fishery

Seines were tested on local beaches this summer in effort helmed by Lisa and Brian Gabriel

Sockeye salmon are gathered together at a test site for selective harvest setnet gear in Kenai, Alaska, on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Board of Fish to consider expansion of commercial dipnetting fishery

Discussion of expanded time, days and season of commercial dipnet fishery scheduled for March

The Alaska Board of Fisheries hears public testimony at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex in Soldotna, Alaska, on Feb. 18, 1999. (M. Scott Moon/Peninsula Clarion file)
Board of Fisheries again declines to hold Upper Cook Inlet meeting on Kenai Peninsula

The State Board of Fisheries this week rejected calls from the Kenai… Continue reading

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski takes a selfie with Rose Burke at the Kenai Municipal Airport in Kenai, Alaska, on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. Burke won the 2024 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree essay contest and will travel to Washington, D.C., in December to light the tree. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Connections student to light U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

Rose Burke, 9, won the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree essay contest and will travel to Washington D.C.

Most Read