KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that an Osceola, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to his role in a $1 million conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, as well as a conspiracy to commit identity theft.

Brad D. Webster, 47, of Osceola, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge John T. Maughmer to the charges contained in a Jan. 25, 2011, federal indictment.

By pleading guilty today, Webster also agreed to forfeit to the government a money judgment of $250,000, as well as two laptop computers, two digital cameras, a scanner and two printers and other equipment used to commit the offense.

Webster admitted that he participated in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine from Jan. 1, 2006, to May 31, 2010. During the course of the conspiracy, co-conspirators allegedly obtained a total of $1 million in proceeds from the illegal distribution of methamphetamine.

Webster also admitted that he participated in a separate conspiracy to commit identity theft, produce false identification documents, and make and pass counterfeit checks from Oct. 18, 2006, to Oct. 31, 2008.

Lee’s Summit police officers responded to a report of drugs being used or sold from a room at a Lee’s Summit hotel. Webster had been renting the room for several days under a false identity. When officers searched the room, they found a baggie containing meth, marijuana cigarettes, drug paraphernalia, two computers and computer equipment, a printer, and identification cards and other documents in the name of another person. A forensic analysis of Webster’s computer revealed 14 counterfeit driver’s licenses with Webster’s picture, 21 counterfeit driver’s licenses with Webster’s picture in progress and the Versa Check program. The Versa Check program had been used to print 456 blank checks from multiple commercial and personal accounts as well as 136 checks from various accounts totaling nearly $80,000.

Webster used the counterfeit identification cards in order to cash counterfeited and forged checks, which he used to make retail purchases.

Webster admitted that he purchased methamphetamine from a supplier who obtains multi-pound amounts of methamphetamine from a Kansas City, Kan., source who brings it up from Mexico.

Webster is the third co-defendant to plead guilty among 15 defendants who were charged in the federal indictment. Roxie A. Boling, 29, and Jeffrey S. Lewis, also known as “JJ,” 45, both of Kansas City, Mo., have pleaded guilty to participating in the drug-trafficking conspiracy. Lewis also pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Under federal statutes, Webster is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of life in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $4,250,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rudolph R. Rhodes, IV. It was investigated by the Lee’s Summit, Mo., Police Department, the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department, the Independence, Mo., Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Secret Service, and the North Kansas City, Mo., Police Department, with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations.

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