United States Drug Enforcement Administration

ANCHORAGE, AK - On June 20, 2012, Brackston Moores, 32, of Anchorage, was sentenced to 160 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute heroin. Chief United States District Judge Ralph R. Beistline imposed the sentence on Moores.

According to information presented to the court, Moores conspired with Anchorage co-defendants Ryan Travis Brown, Amanda Moss, and Ronnie Adams to distribute a substance he believed to be heroin. The substance turned out to be a synthetic mixture containing fentanyl, a dangerous controlled substance, as well as morphine, diphenhydramine, caffeine, and a plant called kratom. The substance was manufactured by Ryan Travis Brown, of Palm Harbour, Florida, and sent to Moores, Moss, and Adams in Alaska. In April 2012, Brown was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Moss and Adams have yet to be sentenced.

Court documents allege that the defendant’s role in the conspiracy was to receive and distribute the substance in Anchorage. During the period of the conspiracy, which spanned from December 2008 through April 2009, over one kilogram of the substance was distributed, or attempted to be distributed by members of the conspiracy. Court documents further allege that on February 19, 2009, during the period of the conspiracy, M.C., a friend and drug customer of both Moores and Adams, died from an overdose of fentanyl. Analysis of M.C.’s blood revealed traces of kratom, diphenhydramine, caffeine, and morphine, as well as fentanyl. In M.C’s bedroom, there was also a quantity of the fentanyl mixture, in the same chemical ratios used by Brown to create the substance.

In imposing the sentence, the court noted the defendant’s criminal history, which showed aggressive and assaultive behavior, as well as the seriousness of the offense, as reasons for the 160 months sentence.

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Anchorage District Office, the Anchorage Police Department’s Vice Unit, and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, conducted the investigation that led to the prosecution of this case. They were assisted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation laboratory.