Alaska seized a $95,000 plane over illicit cargo: A six-pack of beer

WASHINGTON — Ken Jouppi, a bush pilot, was putting gas in his Cessna in Fairbanks, Alaska, on an April morning in 2012 when state troopers arrived. He was preparing to fly a client to Beaver, a remote village 110 miles to the north that prohibits alcohol. “It was going to be a good day,” Jouppi, 82, an Air Force veteran, recalled last week. But the encounter ended badly. The troopers found beer in the passenger’s luggage, and Jouppi was eventually found guilty of knowingly transporting alcohol into a dry community. He was sentenced to three days in jail and ordered...