Five Alaskans and a man from Mississippi are charged in an alleged drug conspiracy that prosecutors say brought large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine to Alaska and led to one man’s murder.
Initial charges in the case were filed a year ago, but it wasn’t until last week that a judge unsealed an indictment charging the men with narcotics distribution, money laundering, and gun violence to facilitate drug trafficking crimes. The indictment names Jordan “Two-3” Shanholtzer, 33, as their leader and Matthew “Matt Matt” Moi, 35, as the trigger man in the murder, both described as formerly from Anchorage.
Also indicted are alleged co-conspirators and Anchorage residents Kenneth “Keyes” Ford, 29, Myrick Elliot, 34, and Isaiah “Izzy” Roderick, 21, as well as Marvin “Unc” Nelson, 55, of Itta Bena, Mississippi.
The indictment says the men worked together from 2017 to 2019 to ship between 3 and 10 kilograms at a time of heroin or methamphetamine into Alaska, earning them hundreds of thousands of dollars. At times, Shanholtzer and Moi lived outside the state, including in Arizona, Florida and California.
Moi is charged separately with the April 2019 murder of a man in Anchorage named Navarrow Andrews, whom Shanholtzer thought had stolen a shipment of heroin.
“Although the enterprise was able to deliver many packages successfully, several were intercepted and diverted by law enforcement and by other criminals,” the indictment says.
The indictment says in September 2019 a drug dealer in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough took a 5 kilogram package of heroin sent from Shanholtzer and Moi to distribute, and at their direction, took 2 kilos to Elliot in Anchorage. The alleged drug dealer is identified in the indictment only as “Individual 1.”
According to the indictment, federal agents took Elliot into custody shortly after Individual 1 brought him the drugs. Then they released Elliot, and when Elliot told Shanholtzer what had happened, Shanholtzer didn’t believe him, the indictment says.
“Accordingly, Shanholtzer and Moi told Individual 1 that Moi would travel to Alaska to ‘take care of’ Elliot,” the indictment says.
Court records show federal agents arrested five of the men in October of 2019, but Nelson was not arrested until Sept. 24 in Mississippi, the same day a judge unsealed the indictment.
The first court appearances for the alleged co-conspirators are set for October.
Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Casey here.
