illinois man sentenced for cocaine conspiracy
following bus interdiction
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – David M. Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Zion, Ill, man was sentenced in federal court today for his role in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana that he carried on a bus passing through Kansas City.
Irvin Miranda, 29, of Zion, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to 10 years in federal prison without parole.
On June 25, 2012 Miranda pleaded guilty to his role in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana.
Kansas City police officers were conducting interdiction activities at the El Conejo Terminal located at 501 S.W. Boulevard, Kansas City, Mo., on Nov. 28, 2011. A bus from Laredo, Texas, arrived and parked at the terminal. When officers used a drug-detection dog to check the luggage located in the lower luggage compartment of the bus, the dog alerted to the presence of narcotics in a black suitcase and several more pieces of luggage.
Officers boarded the bus and contacted a woman; officers also found a Walmart store receipt on the seat where the woman had been seated. The receipt showed that two pieces of luggage had been purchased at a Walmart store in Dallas, Texas. A detective called the Walmart store and had them check the receipt and the woman was placed under arrest. Inside the suitcases, officers found three large bundles that each contained approximately 60 pounds of marijuana.
The Dallas Walmart store provided a surveillance photograph of Miranda purchasing the two suitcases. On Dec. 8, 2011 officers were conducting interdiction activities at the El Conejo Terminal. The bus originating from El Paso, Texas, arrived and parked at the terminal, and officers identified Miranda sitting on the bus. During a search, officers found a bundle that contained more than 55 grams of cocaine strapped to his lower back.
Miranda admitted that he was to be paid $500 to deliver the cocaine to Zion. He also admitted that one of the suitcases recovered from the bus on Nov. 28, 2011 belonged to him.
This case was 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.
