The results, announced July 2, reflect an operation involving about 140 personnel from local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies. Police said the effort targeted violent crime, drug activity, outstanding warrants and retail theft.

Reported results from the operation

Authorities reported the 127 arrests along with the recovery of six stolen vehicles and the seizure of 11 guns. The available report does not identify the individual allegations tied to the arrests or say how many people faced felony rather than misdemeanor allegations.

An arrest is an allegation and does not establish that a person committed a crime. The information available also does not state how many charges were filed after the operation.

Drug activity was among the operation’s stated enforcement targets. However, the available report does not provide a drug-seizure weight or other quantity for drugs connected to the operation.

Multi-agency enforcement effort

The operation brought together personnel from local, state and federal agencies. The Anchorage Police Department was among the agencies involved; the approved reporting identifies Alaska State Troopers and federal law-enforcement agencies as partner participants.

The reported results are a snapshot of activity during the June 24-26 operation. They do not, by themselves, show whether crime increased or declined across Anchorage, and no subsequent citywide crime data was provided in the available source packet.

What is known next

No further public announcement with comparable details about Operation Summer Heat was included in the available reporting. The Anchorage Police Department’s news and information page is the department’s official venue for later crime and public-safety releases.

Police have not provided, in the available report, a deadline for additional case updates, charging decisions or a follow-up enforcement operation. Any later criminal cases arising from the arrests would require separate charging information and court proceedings.

The arrest, announced July 17, 2026, is a major development in a Fairbanks homicide investigation that had remained unresolved for more than three decades. Popps has been charged, but the allegations have not been adjudicated and the available information does not establish a conviction.

Dearth was reported missing in 1993

Dearth was 34 when he disappeared in 1993. His family reported him missing to the Fairbanks Police Department in November of that year.

Investigators determined that Dearth and Popps had worked together in Fairbanks. That connection places the case’s underlying disappearance in Fairbanks, even though Popps was arrested in Michigan.

The Alaska Bureau of Investigation and Alaska State Troopers developed the case and announced the arrest. The agencies’ work has moved the matter from a long-running investigation to a criminal charge, though the court process has not yet resolved the allegations.

Investigators’ account remains an allegation

Investigators allege that an altercation at an auto shop preceded Popps’ alleged shooting of Dearth. They also allege that Dearth’s body was placed in a barrel and dumped beside a highway.

Those details are part of the investigators’ account underlying the second-degree murder charge. They are not court findings, and Popps is presumed innocent unless and until guilt is established through the legal process.

The available information does not describe a motive, and it does not identify a court finding on the allegations. It also does not provide an Alaska hearing date or an extradition timetable following the Michigan arrest.

Tip led investigators to search area

A tip received in January directed investigators toward the location of the remains, according to the reported account of the investigation. Troopers waited until spring 2025 to search the area because of snow and limited daylight.

That later search was part of the investigative work that preceded the 2026 arrest, more than 30 years after Dearth was reported missing. The case now carries a second-degree murder charge, but the charging allegations remain subject to court proceedings.

No public safety instruction was identified in the available information. The known next step is the prosecution process, although authorities had not publicly identified a next Alaska court proceeding or a schedule for transferring Popps to Alaska.