Alaska villagers pay airfare in effort to keep out drugs

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Residents of a small Alaska city purchased a one-way airplane ticket for a woman they believed to be dealing drugs as a way of fighting the spread of narcotics there.

The Anchorage Daily News reported Saturday that about 40 Galena residents gathered at its airport last week.

Residents say they sent a representative to an arriving plane to tell a passenger they believed to be a methamphetamine dealer that they would pay her airfare to leave.

The woman chose to remain on the plane and take a departing flight after being told she would be closely watched if she remained.

The mayor of the 475-member community 270 miles (435 kilometers) west of Fairbanks says drug dealers are known to residents, who nonetheless encounter legal difficulties in stopping their activities.
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Information from: Anchorage Daily News, http://www.adn.com