Transportation Security Administration officers at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport flagged a coffee container packed with suspected cocaine during a secondary baggage screening on Nov. 11, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
Officers noticed a white, chalky substance inside the container, prompting a response from the Anchorage Airport Interdiction Team at about 6:55 a.m. Investigators determined the bag belonged to a 58-year-old Selawik resident, authorities said.
The substance weighed roughly 185 grams and field-tested positive for cocaine. Authorities estimated it carried a street value of $27,750 in the northwestern Alaska communities of Kotzebue and Selawik, where the man was ultimately headed.
The man, identified as Walter Berry, was stopped at the departure gate as he prepared to board a flight from Anchorage to Kotzebue, officials said. Investigators noted that Berry had possession of the luggage before it was checked for the flight.
Berry was arrested and booked into the Anchorage Correctional Complex on a charge of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, authorities said.
The case remains under investigation with assistance from the Western Alaska Alcohol and Narcotics Team.
The incident is one of several unusual finds reported recently at U.S. airport checkpoints. In New York, TSA officers at Watertown International Airport discovered a spent M18 smoke grenade hidden inside an aerosol container in a passenger’s carry-on; the passenger said he had forgotten it was there, and an explosives expert later confirmed it was not live. At Tampa International Airport, officers found a 4-inch double-edged knife concealed inside a flashlight shaped like a baseball bat.
Keith Jeffries, a Florida-based vice president of K2 Security Screening Group and a former federal security director for TSA at Los Angeles International Airport, has cautioned travelers against trying to slip prohibited items past screeners.
“Do not try to test the system,” Jeffries said. “If you do, you will be caught.”
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