BETHEL, Alaska, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Law enforcement authorities in Alaska blame bootlegged alcohol as the main accelerant for crime and other social problems in many of the state's rural villages.
To stop the bootleggers, the Alaska State Troopers are working in the town of Bethel, a western outpost of 6,000 that serves as a base for 56 native villages, The New York Times reported Monday.
"Most of the sexual assaults, suicides and homicides are alcohol-related here," says Jess Carson, a plainclothes investigator for the Alaska State Troopers. "Whenever you show up at a scene, you'll see the alcohol. It increases the importance of getting that off the street."
Carson, 32, was transferred to Bethel after serving as a narcotics investigator in Fairbanks where he concentrated on cocaine and heroin.
A bottle of whiskey that sells for $10 or so in Anchorage can bring as much as $300 in a dry village in the tundra.
"It's identical to the drug trade," Carson said.
