Eight defendants indicted in drug trafficking ring

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A federal grand jury in Kansas City, Kansas, returned an indictment for eight men on charges related to a drug trafficking ring in the Kansas City metropolitan area. 

According to court documents, between July 2022 and June 2024, the defendants allegedly took part in a conspiracy to distribute large quantities of methamphetamine and cocaine.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Jackson County Drug Task Force (JCDTF), the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department, the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department, and the Kansas Highway Patrol are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Trent Krug and David Zabel are prosecuting the case.

OCDETF Strike Force Cases
This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Strike Force Initiative, which provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location. This co-located model enables agents from different agencies to collaborate on intelligence-driven, multi-jurisdictional operations to disrupt and dismantle the most significant drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations.  The specific mission of the OCDETF Kansas City Metro Strike Force is to disrupt and dismantle major criminal organizations and subsidiary organizations, including criminal gangs, transnational drug cartels, racketeering organizations, and other groups engaged in illicit activities that present a threat to public safety and national security and are related to the illegal smuggling and trafficking of narcotics or other controlled substances, weapons, humans, or the illegal concealment or transfer of proceeds derived from such illicit activities in the Western District of Missouri and District of Kansas. The OCDETF Kansas City Metro Strike Force is comprised of agents and officers from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Kansas City, Missouri, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the United States Marshal Service (USMS), the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Missouri (USAO-WDMO), the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas (USAO-KS), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Internal Revenue Service/Criminal Investigation Division (IRS/CID), the United States Secret Service (USSS), and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS),  and the prosecution is being led by the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Kansas.

An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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