Fairbanks Man Sentenced to one year prison term for drug conspiracy

Anchorage, Alaska - U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced today that a Fairbanks man was sentenced in federal court in Fairbanks, Alaska, for three counts of conspiracy and selling illegal drugs.  

Steven Jacob Johnson, 26, of Fairbanks, Alaska, was sentenced on August 16, 2013, by Chief U.S. District Judge Ralph R. Beistline in Fairbanks, based on Johnson’s guilty pleas to charges that he conspired to distribute, and did distribute, illegal drugs in the Fairbanks area.  He distributed the illegal chemical substances, 2C-E and 2C-I, which was sold as “ecstasy”. The court sentenced Johnson to a one year prison term and he was credited the ten months’ in prison he already served.  His sentence also included 54 additional days of electronically monitored home confinement and three years of supervised release.  The charges arose from Johnson’s selling the drugs on two occasions in 2012 to an undercover informant and Johnson’s negotiation of a third sale.    

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Cooper, who prosecuted the case, the facts Johnson admitted to in court showed that Johnson first sold 300 pills for $9 per pill, and was paid $2,700 in cash.  Johnson’s second sale was for 800 pills he sold at $10 each for a total of $8,000.  He negotiated a third sale of 900 pills.  Each of these sales was filmed and recorded.  Johnson conducted the sales for his partner who he said had manufactured the pills and he was observed giving most of the cash to his partner.  2C-E and 2C-I are phenethylamines that have chemical and pharmacological properties akin to LSD, ecstasy and other hallucinogenic drugs.

The co-defendant Jackson Drew pled guilty to conspiracy, distribution and possession with intent to distribute drugs.  Drew is scheduled to be sentenced in Fairbanks on September 27, 2013.

Ms. Loeffler commends the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for the investigation of this case.