History of the District of Alaska

The District of Alaska was established in 1884 and covers the entire state and all its federal courts.

The first U.S. Marshal appointed to the district was M.C. Hillyer, officially appointed on July 5, 1884. Operating out of Sitka, his tenure was marked by immense logistical challenges, including a three-month mail turnaround with Washington, D.C., and the need to send sentenced prisoners to San Quentin, CA.

Robert Heun became the U.S. Marshal for Alaska in February 2010 following his retirement from the Anchorage Police Department in 2009. He oversees a team of 20 that navigates the unique and often severe terrain to uphold federal law. The district is equipped with its own plane, operated by a U.S. Marshals Service pilot, to assist in traversing the state’s expansive geography. Some work also calls for the dispatching of their four-wheelers or snow machines to reach remote locations to apprehend fugitives.

In 2025, the District of Alaska made 446 arrests. Among these was the arrest of 18-year-old Darius Morgan. A resident of North Pole, Morgan had amassed a $1 million arrest warrant for the murder of a 15-year-old that took place at a house party. After firing multiple rounds inside the house, Morgan subsequently fled the scene. In collaboration with local law enforcement entities and the community, deputies were able to find and detain Morgan after a month-long investigation. Morgan had prior convictions in 2024 for second-degree robbery, resulting in any future possessions of a firearm a felony charge.  

The District of Alaska is part of a Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF), a multi-agency initiative aimed at eliminating transnational criminal organizations, drug cartels, and violent gangs.

The district participates in Rural Alaskan village warrant sweeps -- targeted, multi-day law enforcement operations conducted in remote Native communities to execute outstanding arrest warrants, often involving probation violations, failure to appear, or domestic violence, and clear outstanding legal backlogs that build up due to severe, chronic police understaffing in isolated regions of the state.

Recent multi-agency warrant sweeps and crime suppression operations in the Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Valley and surrounding areas have also targeted drug trafficking, outstanding fugitives, and illicit commercial sex operations.

Alaska covers approximately 665,384 square miles. It is by far the largest state in the U.S., with a land area of about 570,641 square miles, and is the biggest district in the country to oversee. Headquartered in Anchorage, the district also has permanent offices in Juneau and Fairbanks.