Meth ring: Springfield woman at'ground zero' of drug ring gets 22 months in prison. The only thing that connected them was meth. Updated October 21, 2022 8:13 AM. After years of wiretaps, surveillance, drug busts, three rounds of indictments, dozens of press releases,andyears of court proceedings, the last member of the ring is expected to be sentenced within the next month. The posses won grudging respect from authorities for their business acumen, if nothing else. Hernandez-Mujica is also charged with one count of possessing 50 grams or more of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute and with one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime. Taking cases to federal court where defendants would face much stiffer prison terms finally helped persuade witnesses to cooperate. Deone D. Gardner, also known as Twin, 28, Belton, Mo.. The groups victims included rival gang members. #12 Rafael Caro Quintero: $650 Million. The Jamaicans were easy to spot. Justice demands nothing short of full truth so that the important process of repair and reconciliation can begin. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. Nothing? And they killed. They made money selling a cornucopia of illegal drugs: cocaine, marijuana, PCP and ecstasy. Chinese-Canadian alleged drug kingpin, accused of running one of the world's biggest methamphetamine cartels, is arrested in Amsterdam By Joshua Berlinger , CNN Updated 10:45 PM EST, Sat January . The Jamaicans were not yet recognized as a serious problem. While in state prison, Long earned a high school equivalency degree and converted to Islam. The co-founder of the now-defunct Guadalajara Cartel. He was always thoughtful and compassionate, she said, and was taught right from wrong., Toney agreed that Long did not strike him as someone capable of some of the things authorities say he did. A man who helped flood Washington, D.C., with drugs in the 1980s wants to reduce his sentence using guidelines that help drug offenders secure early release. . The defendants conspired with one another and others known and unknown to the grand jury to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate young women, prosecutors said. His grandmother said he likes to write and has penned books about his life on the streets. The group has expanded rapidly across Mexico and is now one of the country's most dominant . . Hes a menace to society, Teresa Birks said of the man who killed her nephew. Most people in the conspiracy had no interactionswith anybody outside a few other members of the meth ring. Sign up for FOX4 email alerts to have breaking news sent to your inbox. Snow chances Friday, Chiefs rank among worst in NFLPA Report Cards, KC Police Board remembers fallen KCPD officer, K9, KC needs volunteers for Big 12 Championships, events, Kansas City weather: Why your car may be dusty today, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Martinez rose to prominence in the mid-1980s. To that end, the rival gangs have joined forces in the Midwest, as have the Jamaicans. While many Americans were putting turkeys in ovens, watching football in the living room, or driving to their grandmothers' houses, officers were listening to the phone calls of Friend and Harmon. Armendariz-Rascon, of Kansas City, Kansas, is among 13 people from the Kansas City area who were brought up on criminal charges related to the long-running drug ring. A former police detective in Kansas City, Kan., was indicted Monday by the Justice Department on charges of conspiring with local drug dealers to force underage girls into involuntary sexual servitude in the mid-1990s. Skip to Main Content. The 51st Street Crips shot their way to an unmatched level of notoriety in the late 1990s and early 2000s, authorities say. In early 2013, Long was released from prison after serving his sentence for killing Birks. Abcarian: Mask mandates? He told the informant he usually bought 10 to 20 kilograms of cocaine from Campoy-Estrada, according to the news release. Members of a cartel cell in Kansas City, with drug houses in both Kansas and Missouri between 2013 and 2016, splurged on $10,000 tickets to rapper Pitbull's concert and a Louis Vuitton purse. . Methamphetamine has devastating effects on drug users and can lead to memory loss, "meth mouth," overdose and death. However, thanks to insiders, our blog community is getting a sneak peek at the rising debate. The News-Leader has been covering this meth ring for years, reviewing hundreds of pages of court documents and attending hearings of those involved. . and Kansas City," the DEA reports. Members of Longs family still live just off 51st Street, east of the Paseo. A lock ( Weve charged and convicted over 200., He said he believes there probably are only about 30 Jamaican posse members in Kansas City today. Many of the killings involved Jamaican nationals. The drug ring brought in an estimated 2,600 kilograms, or roughly 5,750 pounds, of cocaine, federal prosecutors said. Jose Luis Armendariz-Rascon, 40, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison without the possibility of parole, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Missouri announced Friday. The federal indictment alleges that all 26 defendants have participated in a conspiracy since Jan. 28, 2019, to distribute crack cocaine, fentanyl, cocaine, and marijuana in Jackson County. They could double their profits by selling here as opposed to Miami or New York, and, to a large degree, that still is the case, Barton said. He may have done a lot of dirt out there, said his grandmother, Gwendolyn Long. Walters' wife, Nina Walters, 39, was sentenced earlier this month to one year and a day in federal prison for helping in the money laundering of drug profits, according to the news release. Location: India. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. . Harris knows many of the small-time drug dealers--the local entrepreneurs, as Barton calls them, who are helping to satisfy the high demand for crack created by the Jamaicans. Drug-Dealing 'Posses' : Jamaicans: New Faces in U.S. Crime. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. Investigators said members of the organization sold marijuana, crack cocaine, powder cocaine, ecstasy pills, OxyContin pills, and counterfeit Percocet pills made with fentanyl. Who was the biggest drug dealer in history? They would get out on bail and disappear. FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. $18.00 + $1.00 shipping. . Fear etched their faces briefly, until they saw that it was not a bust. The drugs were brought to the Kansas City area on tractor trailer truck carrying five-gallon cans and antifreeze jugs. What were seeing are drug entrepreneurs trying to open up markets for their product . Baltimore Police's West Side Major Case Squad and the . Walters and his co-conspirators flooded the Kansas City area with more than 2,000 kilograms of cocaine and profited from a multi-million dollar conspiracy in the process. . Kansas City officers, agents arrest 25 in drug-trafficking operation. All sorts of cars were pulling up to the house late at night and leaving shortly after, Flesch said. Theyre not here to recruit for their gangs or anything along those lines, Barton said. This generation that we got coming up right now, theyre definitely in jeopardy--an endangered species., Harris stopped his squad car to talk to a young man named Winston, whom the police officer identified as an active dealer but who denied any involvement with drugs. Flesch said she would wave to "tattoo lady," but she never waved back. The federal indictment alleges that all 26 defendants participated in a conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine, five kilograms or more of cocaine and one kilogram or more of heroin from June 2013 to June 2014. Hardly anybody in Kansas City knew what crack was at first. Jan. 3, 1989 12 AM PT. The posse leadership would ship them off to another city. Bill Lukitsch covers breaking news for The Star. A former police detective in Kansas City, Kan., was indicted Monday by the Justice Department on charges of conspiring with local drug dealers to force underage girls into "involuntary . The money from the drug sales was transferred back to California in a number of ways, according to the indictment, such as shipments in computer towers by Dennys Sermeno-Campos and the electronic transfer of funds by Rosalia Avila. 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Long disputed much of the governments information. Walters admitted he bought vehicles with the drug money, including a Porsche Panamera and a Mercedes Benz GLS550 SUV. Flesch specifically recalled a man who rode in on a motorcycle and sported a blue or purple mohawk. For two months, she sat and watched her new neighbors a woman she called "tattoo lady," a man, and a young boy and girl. Remember, we covered this topic not so long ago . It's enough pills to possibly kill the . Annual homicide details and data for the Kansas City area are available through the 41 Action News Homicide Tracker, which was launched in 2015. biggest drug dealer in kansas city. This co-conspirator told investigators that he had delivered marijuana to Kansas City to Taylor seven or eight times, and he had transported $500,000 to $700,000 to Arizona for these drug shipments. Drug dealers prey on Alaskans with addictions. Armendariz-Rascon, of Kansas City, Kansas, is among 13 people from the Kansas . The indictment accuses Brooks of targeting vulnerable girls who were runaways or had been released from juvenile detention facilities to work as prostitutes, locking them in an office in the apartment, and beating or threatening them if they did not provide sex in exchange for shelter, drugs or clothes. It wasnt until the bodies started piling up in crack houses across the city that the realization dawned: Kansas City was being invaded by violent Jamaican drug gangs. He almost immediately began killing again, prosecutors say. The group at one point was supplying 10 to 20 kilos (22 to 44 pounds) of cocaine a week to local drug dealers in the Kansas City metro area, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said. The drug remains a stubborn scourge in southwest Missouri, according to Tim Garrison, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. Some police officers were concerned about the growing presence of Jamaican criminals here as early as 1983. This is a great time to be a local scumbag given the current policy . Reginald L. Mitchem, 42, Kansas City, Mo. The biggest prescription problem was found in Wales, London, West Midlands and Edinburgh. Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar is currently the most wanted criminal in India, with a reward of $25 million being offered in return for his capture. Members of the gang brought food. Almost all the 29 members of the conspiracy declined interview requestsor had the request denied by their prison. One is Howard Walters, 43, of Lees Summit, who received a 25-year sentence last month for participating in the scheme as a money launderer. Faced with decades in federal prison, people started flipping. For one of the shattered families Long left in his wake, the fact that he served only 12 years for killing Birks was an injustice. These individuals allegedly supplied drugs to their own customers. But they even killed their own to prevent them from talking to police. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. They then broke into a safe at the station and stole two submachine guns, two M-16 assault rifles and three .38-calibre revolvers.. This morning we have important followup on a longstanding debate betwixt the courthouse vs. the police. On Thanksgiving 2014, Flesch fixed dinner, put on a jacket and sat out front. BEST OFFER - SAVE 37%. . . Violent gangsterism had exploded in Jamaica in the 1970s, as the Jamaican economy plunged into record depression. The source also told authorities Walters said his cocaine came from Jesus Campoy-Estrada, 26, of Kansas City, Kansas. November Gardner and Hicks-Berry are also accused of firing a number of gunshots near 24th Street and Van Brunt on Nov. 26, 2019. Law enforcement officials believe Long, now 35, is personally responsible for at least five murders. This operation removed a large number of armed and dangerous drug dealers from the streets of our community, U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore, said. Federal court documents show agents arrested four people Tuesday and an additional 21 people on Wednesday. Yet according to police, the Crips grew so feared in the community, it became difficult for investigators to persuade people to step up and testify against them. Aguilar-Valle is also charged with one count of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm. Long fired the one final shot into his head. Earlier that day, police overheard them setting up a buy. and last updated 3:59 AM, Apr 22, 2021. Far more people were directly mentioned, implicated in crimes or alluded to in court documents and hearings. . The drugs arrived at the residences of co-conspirators, the indictment says, such as Aguilar-Valle, then were picked up by Ramon Soto-Garcia. John E. Johnson, 29, of Kansas City, was charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. They then killed three policemen. Kansas Bureau of Investigation director Tony Mattivi told lawmakers throughout his confirmation process that fentanyl is one of the biggest issues the KBI must tackle. Moreover . . We have never seen this, Bullying of referees leads to entire student section being thrown out of Iowa game, Burger King brings back fan-favorite sandwich but not for long. KANSAS CITY, Mo. Aug 13, 2020. This high rise housing complex just minutes away from downtown Kansas City consisted of five buildings for low income families, from the early 1960s to the late 1980s. . After first setting up operations in Miami and New York in the early 1980s, the Jamaican posses soon branched out to other East Coast cities and to the South and Midwest, spreading crack and death as they went. I believe (the price is) even lower than that in L.A.. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. Debate over drug charges is now Kansas City's consequence for weed legalization. San Diego's largest cash seizure ever may shed light on an overlooked aspect of the drug trade >> . Two additional defendants were arrested as part of the investigation, but charged separately in federal indictments that also were unsealed Wednesday. "They were No. A woman was also located. He said he was the victim of a vendetta and had not received justice. A few minutes later, driving through a sprawling north side housing project--a supermarket of crack, Barton calls it--Harris called out to a group of young men standing outside in the drizzle. Don't be a spammer. The federal indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation, which would require all 26 defendants to forfeit to the government $16,017,200, which represents the proceeds obtained as a result of the alleged offenses. RPPC-White City KS-City Drug Store-Interior-Postcard Rack-Morris County-Kansas. But, by the time the department higher-ups began to take notice--in 1986, about the time that the federal government began a national crackdown--the posses had moved 450 gang members into town, set up business in 50 crack houses and created a demand for the drug that shows no sign of abating. Operation Signed and Sealed was a two-year, multi-agency investigation into a drug-trafficking organization that sold over 700 pounds of methamphetamine, 250 kilograms of cocaine and multiple kilograms of heroin in the Kansas City metropolitan area, with an estimated total value of more than $16 million. I dont roughhouse them. The posses began setting up operations in this country in the early 1980s, after bloody elections in Jamaica in which gang members turned the streets of Kingston into sandbagged battlefields and 600 people died. It has been called Dr. Seuss Day because of this. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? he asked. Officers pulled them over, seizingthe Harley and $34,310 incash. According to court documents, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began investigating an armed drug trafficking organization in April 2021. He went to visit relatives and friends in Colorado and Texas. Copyright 2021 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. We estimated 450 Jamaican criminals here in 1986, Barton said. Agents also found hundreds of rounds of ammunition, the news release states. He must also pay $56 million in proceeds from the drug-trafficking ring to the federal government as a condition of his punishment. 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