Five Alaskans Indicted by Federal Grand Jury for Drug Trafficking Conspiracy

ANCHORAGE—United States Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced today that four Kenai Peninsula residents and an Anchorage man were indicted by a federal grand jury in Anchorage, for one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of drug proceeds and property used to facilitate drug trafficking offenses, including one black 2007 Cadillac Escalade.

The one-count indictment names Kenai peninsula residents Kostas Nikolaos Bairamis, 23, Melissa Dawn Cue, 34, BJ Griffith, 22, William Gilbert, 25, and Anchorage resident Justin Clayton Ray Lane, 23, as the five defendants.

According to the indictment, defendants Bairamis, Cue, Griffith, Gilbert and Lane conspired to distribute oxycodone and methadone from sometime in June 2010 to October 2010.

Bairamis was convicted of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine during a different time period and is awaiting sentencing on that charge. Cue and Griffith were previously indicted by a grand jury in the District of Nevada—those charges remain pending.

Assistant United States Attorney Kimberly Sayers-Fay, who presented the case to the grand jury, advised that the maximum penalties for conspiring to distribute oxycodone and methadone are 20 years in prison, a $1 million fine, three years of supervised release and a $100 special assessment.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Alaska State Troopers conducted the investigation the led to the indictment in this case.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.