A maintenance worker at Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward was arrested Friday after troopers say he was part of an effort to smuggle Suboxone strips into the facility.
An affidavit included with charging documents says that on June 19, Alaska State Troopers were notified by Spring Creek Superintendent Jason Brown that Paul Cottrell, 58, was suspected of delivering controlled substances to an inmate.
After an investigation, Cottrell was arrested and charged with fourth-degree misconduct involving controlled substances, first-degree tampering with physical evidence and first-degree promoting contraband. He was taken to Spring Creek.
Cottrell worked as a maintenance technician, the affidavit says, primarily working on plumbing. The inmate with whom he allegedly worked to deliver drugs to Spring Creek served as his assistant within the facility.
Spring Creek staff flagged recorded calls — beginning in October 2023 — between the Spring Creek inmate and a former inmate now in Fairbanks under electronic monitoring. In the calls, the two men allegedly discuss a plan to deliver sublingual Suboxone strips, a controlled substance comprised of both buprenorphine and naloxone, as well as pornography into the center. Suboxone strips are used clinically to treat narcotic dependence.
During the phone calls, the inmate and former inmate describe a third person who would be assisting them, according to the affidavit. Troopers identified Cottrell as that third person — per the affidavit — by his closeness to Spring Creek inmate, their work as plumbers, and descriptions given.
On June 15, the inmate called the former inmate and said that his “wife,” whom troopers say in the affidavit they believe to be Cottrell, will be receiving prescriptions soon. The former inmate reportedly said “probably like Monday for sure.”
Cottrell, indeed, was receiving a package on Monday, June 17, the affidavit says. Troopers watched him pick it up, they said, and a U.S. postal inspector found that a total of four packages had been sent from an unaddressed sender to a P.O. box with no addressed recipient.
The next day, June 17, troopers asked Cottrell about contraband being introduced to Spring Creek, but he denied it, according to the affidavit. A trooper search dog searching the maintenance area where Cottrell and the inmate worked found no contraband.
An electronic monitoring probation officer searched the phone of the former inmate, also on June 17, the affidavit says. They reported finding a contact with Cottrell’s phone number and texts where Cottrell provides his mailing address and describes packages sent on three of the four dates identified by the postal inspector.
A search warrant was executed at Cottrell’s residence and vehicle on Friday, June 21, the affidavit says, and the package was found in the home and searched. An eyeglass case in the package had 93 Suboxone strips hidden inside, according to the affidavit.
Cottrell told troopers that he deleted text messages from the sender because he worried that they looked bad, but said that he believed the package contained only eyeglasses. The affidavit says he also told troopers that he had received a memory stick with pornography on it from the same sender to deliver to the inmate. Despite being confronted by troopers with the texts that indicate more packages were sent, Cottrell said he only remembered the two.
In April 2023, another employee at Spring Creek was arrested and charged with distributing methamphetamine and buprenorphine at Spring Creek.
Cottrell was arraigned at the Kenai Courthouse on Monday; his next court appearance is scheduled for July 18 at the Seward Courthouse. He posted $2,750 in bail on Tuesday and is released without electronic monitoring, ordered to have no contact with the current or the former inmate.
No attorney is listed for Cottrell in the state court database.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
