NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

JOHN F. WOOD

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

SEPTEMBER 27, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROJECT CEASEFIRE

BOLIVAR MAN SENTENCED TO 21 YEARS

FOR ILLEGAL FIREARMS

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Bolivar, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for illegally possessing firearms.

Edward McBee, 47, of Bolivar, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan, Jr., to 21 years and 10 months in federal prison without parole. McBee was sentenced as an armed career criminal due to his prior felony convictions.

“Project Ceasefire is designed to keep armed criminals off the streets,” Wood said. “Our neighborhoods are safer when repeat offenders are sentenced to long prison terms.”

McBee was arrested at his residence on Dec. 1, 2005, after escaping from the Vernon County, Mo., jail.

On Feb. 26, 2007, McBee pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. McBee, who has at least 24 criminal felony convictions that include multiple counts of car theft and forgery, was in possession of a Lorcin .380-caliber pistol and a Remington .22-caliber rifle at the time of his arrest. Under federal law, it is illegal for anyone who has been convicted of a felony to be in possession of any firearm or ammunition.

McBee also pleaded guilty to using a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and to being in possession of a stolen firearm, the Lorcin .380-caliber pistol. McBee admitted that he used the Lorcin .380-caliber pistol in furtherance of the crime of distribution of marijuana between April 14, 2004, and Dec. 1, 2005, in Polk County, Mo.

This case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by the Polk County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Project Ceasefire

Project Ceasefire is a cooperative initiative by federal and local law enforcement that targets for federal prosecution persons who unlawfully use or possess firearms.

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