Police have cracked down on gambling at an area seafood processing plant.

Eileen Ceralde, Marlyn Baker, Luisa East, Amelito Maglasang, and Perla Salacup have all been charged with promoting unlawful gambling. The crime is a Class A misdemeanor. The maximum penalty for the crime is a $10,000 fine and a year in prison.

The Unalaska Department of Public Safety launched their investigation in July, after receiving a tip that high-stakes games were going on at Unisea. Michael Centeno, an employee with the company, filed a complaint that he had played a game called “paycheck poker” and that the organizers were profiting. Sgt. Jennifer Shockley explains the rules.

A jury has found former fish processing workers Ismael Balallo and Diego Mayuyo guilty of sexual assault. The two men stood accused of forcing themselves on a woman in her Unisea bunkhouse in March.

Balallo was found guilty of sexual assault in the first degree for penetrating the woman without her consent. He was also found guilty of sexual assault in the second degree for engaging in sexual contact without her consent.

Fake money was floating around the bar last week.

According to the Unalaska Department of Public Safety, a counterfeit $100 bill turned up in a bank deposit on Monday. Officers concluded that the bill had been used at the Harbor View Bar and Grill, and that it had been mixed in with employee tips.

Sgt. Jennifer Shockley says that it seems to be an isolated case.

“We haven’t had anything that seems to indicate that there’s somebody bringing up or even producing here large quantities of counterfeit bills,” says Shockley. To me it seems far more likely that somebody gets a hold of one, whether it’s on purpose or by accident, and literally passes the buck.”

Jurors began weighing the evidence today in the trial of two men accused of sexual assault.

Ismael Balallo and Diego Mayuyo are each charged with multiple counts of sexual assault for allegedly attacking a woman in her Unisea bunkhouse in March.

The trial lasted two days, with jurors hearing testimony from the alleged victim, healthcare providers, and the arresting officer, among others. The defendants elected not to testify.

Jury selection began Monday in the trial of two men accused of sexual assault. Diego Mayuyo, 48, and Ismael Balallo, 45, allegedly attacked a woman in her Unisea bunkhouse in March.

Both men are charged with sexual assault in the second degree, which is punishable by up to ten years in prison. Balallo is also charged with one count of sexual assault in the first degree, which is punishable by up to thirty years in prison.

A local man was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.

Albert Fredericks, 46, was charged with sexual assault in the second degree on Saturday, after a woman reported that he attacked her in her own home Thursday morning. Fredericks maintains the act was consensual. According to court documents, a medical examination found injuries consistent with the woman’s statement.

(Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard)

Chinese law enforcement has taken custody of a pirate fishing vessel. The Coast Guard cutter Rush intercepted the Da Cheng just over two weeks ago in the North Pacific Ocean near Japan.

The Rush crew found 30 metric tons of albacore tuna and six metric tons of shark and shark fin on board. They'd been taking using high seas drift nets, which are banned by international treaty.

Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow says the Da Cheng crew insisted their 177-foot ship was flagged in Indonesia. That turned out to be a lie.

A vehicle ended up in Captain’s Bay over the weekend. Police say it appears to have been stolen. The roads crew pulled a white Ford F-350 truck out of the water near Westward on Sunday morning. Sergeant Bill Simms says the truck rolled on its way into the Bay, crushing the roof.

“It was actually upright, submerged in about a foot, foot and a half of water. The tide fortunately was going out, so I can imagine it would have been lot worse if it would have landed upside down and the tide was coming up.”

Eight months after being seized, the fate of the stateless fishing vessel Bangun Perkasa has finally been decided. Despite earlier calls from Senator Mark Begich to scuttle the vessel, it will instead be sold for scrap metal, as the Associated Press first reported on Monday.

The Coast Guard seized the Bangun Perkasa on the high seas in October while it was driftnetting, a fishing practice banned worldwide because of its indiscriminate take of marine life.