Kansas man arrested after fleeing to Fairbanks

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) – A Kansas man was arrested after a brief stand-off with the Fairbanks Criminal Suppression Unit in the Bentley Mall parking lot on May 7.

39 year-old Levi Hart of Montgomery County, Kansas was wanted for multiple felony drug manufacturing and trafficking charges, as well as failure to appear in court, when he left his home state.

“The information that was passed on to us was that he had no intentions of going back to jail, and that he was possibly armed,” said Alaska State Trooper Trevor Norris, a member of the Criminal Suppression Unit.

“In kind of a stroke of luck for us, by the time we got the information on what he was likely wearing and driving he happened to show up where a surveillance unit was parked in about an hour,” Norris explained.

Multiple law enforcement units were able to enter the area without alerting the suspect. Hart turned out to be unarmed, and surrendered after a short stand-off.

“He told us at the time that he was debating on whether to flee or to end the confrontation some other way,” Norris said. “But at the end of the day he said that he didn’t think Alaska would arrest on outstanding warrants from out of state. And I’m here to tell you that a great way to meet the Criminal Suppression Unit is to come up to Fairbanks with extraditable warrants. Alaska will extradite fugitives from justice.”

Hart was remanded to the Fairbanks Correctional Center to await extradition to Kansas.

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