Two men have been charged in connection with drugs found in a gold refining company’s Fairbanks office earlier this month.
Robert Curry, the sole employee and key and alarm code holder of Oxford Assaying and Refining in Fairbanks, was recently fired for suspected embezzling from the company, according to a sworn affidavit from a drug enforcement officer.
On June 6, while doing inventory on the company’s larger safe, the owner of Oxford found more than $27,000 in cash, gold and sliver coins, ivory, gemstones and paperwork with Curry’s name inside two smaller safes.
Court documents show that the owner also found a crystalline substance, that was later confirmed as approximately eight pounds of methamphetamine.
During a federally warranted search of Curry’s home on June 16, a bag with an Oxford logo containing a small amount of meth and a loaded pistol was found in a red Toyota SUV. Curry acknowledged the bag and its contents were his, according to court documents.
Curry said another man — Matthew Lugin — owned the drugs found in the safe at Oxford. He claimed he had kept the safe for Lugin three other times and had also received packages from Arizona and Texas at Oxford for Lugin. Though Curry was not sure what was in the safe or the packages, he guessed it contained meth, court documents say.
During the search, a sting was arranged in which Curry asked Lugin to pick up the safe and drop off more meth. Lugin and Curry’s transaction of more than eight grams of meth was audio recorded, and a large amount of rolled up cash was found in the Mustang Lugin arrived in, according to the criminal complaint.
