NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

MATT J. WHITWORTH

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

APRIL 15, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

INDIANA MAN SENTENCED FOR COCAINE CONSPIRACY

CO-DEFENDANTS ATTEMPTED TO SMUGGLE MORE THAN

1 KILO OF COCAINE VIA GREYHOUND BUS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Matt J. Whitworth, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Muncie, Ind., man was sentenced in federal court today for participating in a conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute more than a kilogram of cocaine.

Arnold E. Childress, 39, of Muncie, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Scott O. Wright this morning to 10 years in federal prison without parole.

On Dec. 1, 2008, Childress pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy. Childress and co-defendant John B. Carter, 24, of Rialto, Calif., were arrested at a Greyhound passenger bus terminal in Kansas City. As they exited a bus from Los Angeles, Childress and Carter were each carrying coolers. A police detective searched the coolers and found two heat-sealed bundles containing cocaine hidden in the lining of each cooler. The combined weight of the cocaine was 1.127 kilograms.

Childress was carrying a Greyhound ticket for one-way travel from California to Indianapolis. The ticket had been purchased under another name with a military discount.

Carter was sentenced on March 17, 2009, to five years in prison without parole after pleading guilty to his role in the conspiracy.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rudolph R. Rhodes IV. It was investigated by the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

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