Drug trafficker from Alaska and Arizona sentenced to 10 years in prison

Lina PortmanJune 6, 2024

8 1 minute read

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) – In a matter of months, a 25-year-old Arizona man supplied hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to Alaska and was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison.

Court documents show Odarious Shaw, 25, allegedly shipped up to 500,000 pills at one time to Alaska. He distributed the pills twice a week in quantities of 40,000 or more.

Authorities discovered that Shaw would ask buyers in Alaska to send him $150 in order to obtain the pills in Arizona. Once he received the pills, he would provide a date when the courier would arrive at the Anchorage airport with the drugs in checked luggage. Then the courier would drop off the pills to the buyer and collect the rest of the money for the pills.

In June 2023, said courier and co-defendant, Corrion James, 26, was arrested at the Anchorage Airport for possession of 41,000 fentanyl pills with intent to sell. The street value of the pills in Anchorage is estimated at $500,000 and could reach $4.8 million in rural Alaska.

A few months later, in August 2023, Shaw was arrested in Arizona for continually selling drugs to Alaska.

In February 2024, James pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than three years in prison.

“A single pill can destroy a person's life, and the amount of fentanyl supplied by Mr. Shaw to Alaska could destroy entire communities,” said U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker for the District of Alaska. “Illegal fentanyl has absolutely no place here. My office will continue to hinder the flow of illegal fentanyl into our state by working with our law enforcement partners to disrupt the supply and distribution of this toxic drug.

“During this investigation, the FBI and our law enforcement partners intercepted tens of thousands of illicit fentanyl pills before reaching local Alaska communities, preventing untold violence and devastation ” said Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Day of the FBI Anchorage Field Office. “Through a task force approach, the FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to identify, disrupt and hold accountable those fueling drug trafficking activities in Alaska.”