Plane May Be Forfeited For Beer Smuggling Flight

The Alaska Supreme Court has ruled that the state can confiscate a charter operator's Cessna 206 after he was caught trying to smuggle six dozen beer into a dry community 13 years ago. According to The New York Times, in 2012, an Alaska State Trooper spotted a charte customer's beer being loaded into Kenneth Jouppi's plane at the Fairbanks Airport. Jouppi was headed for Beaver, Alaska, a dry community of 80 people that takes that status seriously. Jouppi was eventually found guilty, jailed for three days and fined $3,000. The trial court didn't take the plane but the state disagreed and eventually the status of the 206 went to the Supreme Court.

In a recent decision, the court determined seizure of the plane wasn't disproportionate to the crime. “We hold, as a matter of law, that the owner of the airplane failed to establish that forfeiture would be unconstitutionally excessive,” the court said in its decision. Jouppi, who's now 82, told the Times he hasn't seen the plane since he got out of jail and it was life changing. “When they took my plane, I was forced into retirement,” Mr. Jouppi told the Times. “You spend a lot of sleepless nights. It hasn’t been a pleasant experience at all.” The state hasn't said whether it's going to actually seize the plane, which was worth $95,000 at the time. It's not clear whether it has been maintained in flying condition since the trial or where it's been kept.