Alaska State Troopers busted a major bootlegging operation in Bethel earlier this fall. Three men are charged for allegedly transporting over 250 liters, or almost 70 gallons, of liquor to Bethel in a single month. They are 21-year-old Carlos Zambrano, 23-year-old Trystan Lewis, and 50-year-old Steven Kim.
The law enforcement investigation began in September. A trooper saw Zambrano getting on a plane in Bethel headed to Anchorage. Troopers were familiar with the 21-year-old Zambrano, who was suspected of drug trafficking and was also on probation from a burglary and assault conviction earlier this summer.
Troopers in Bethel contacted Anchorage Airport Police and asked them to watch Zambrano. Through security camera footage, they saw him hail a cab at the airport. Troopers contacted the driver of that cab who said that he drove Zambrano to a liquor store. The driver said that Zambrano purchased several cases of liquor, put them in plastic totes, then dropped them off at Everts Air Cargo, a freight company.
Troopers called the liquor store that the cab driver said Zambrano visited. The liquor store said that Zambrano purchased 10 cases of liquor costing about $1,500.
Bethel’s local option laws prohibit possessing more than 10.5 liters of liquor. Troopers suspected that Zambrano was transporting almost 10 times that amount.
A week later, troopers were notified that Zambrano was on another flight from Bethel to Anchorage, flying with three empty plastic totes. On his return flight, troopers received a warrant to search his luggage. They found 178 bottles of liquor and a 12-pack of beer. Troopers were able to match fingerprints found on the liquor bottles with Zambrano’s.
Then, by accident, troopers stumbled upon more people allegedly involved in the bootlegging operation. It was a case of mistaken identity that started at the end of September. Troopers were at the Bethel airport, looking for suspicious individuals or luggage. They saw a man they thought was Zambrano in line to depart for Anchorage again. But it was not Zambrano. It was another man who looked like him, wearing a face mask.
Still, when the Zambrano lookalike landed in Anchorage, troopers in the city followed him in-person. He was with another man, who officers watched go into a liquor store, purchase several cases of liquor, and take them to Everts Air Cargo. Troopers seized the liquor at Everts. It was headed for Bethel, and was illegal because it was an amount over the limit allowed under local option law.
The Zambrano lookalike does not face charges at this time, but the man he was traveling with, Trystan Lewis, who troopers watched purchase and ship the alcohol, faces one count of bootlegging.
Troopers also became aware that there was a link between this group and Zambrano. Officers obtained from Everts the phone number of the person who was slated to pick up the liquor in Bethel. That was Steven Kim, who told troopers that he had planned to pick up the alcohol and give it to his friend. That friend was Zambrano.
In the month of September, troopers say that Zambrano, Kim, and Lewis transported or attempted to transport over 250 liters of liquor to Bethel.
Zambrano, Kim, and Lewis face charges of selling alcohol without a license in a dry area. Zambrano also faces charges of violating probation. He is also being charged in a separate case for illegally shipping marijuana concentrates to a village in the Y-K Delta.
