California Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Meth Conspiracy

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a California man was sentenced in federal court today for his role in a conspiracy to mail large quantities of methamphetamine to Columbia, Mo., for distribution.

Kameron Terrell Howard, 26, of Compton, Calif., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to 15 years in federal prison without parole.

On Jan. 19, 2017, Howard pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Co-defendants Melissa Guerra, 35, Jeremy Dennis Maxwell, 31, and his wife, Stephanie Anne Maxwell, 34, all of Columbia, and Calvanisha Yvette West, 28, of California, have also pleaded guilty to participating in the conspiracy and await sentencing.

Postal inspectors identified a suspicious parcel mailed from California to Guerra’s address on Nov. 6, 2015. After a drug canine alerted to the package, investigators found 444.8 grams of pure methamphetamine. A second suspicious parcel identified on the same day, mailed to a different address, contained almost 1.4 kilograms of pure methamphetamine.

Postal inspectors executed a controlled delivery of the first parcel on Nov. 10, 2015. When federal agents and the Boone County Sheriff’s Department Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT) approached the residence, a co-conspirator who had just arrived ran to the front door of the residence, opened it, and shut the door behind him. SWAT members were unable to breach the door as it had been reinforced. SWAT members entered at another location. Guerra was apprehended inside the residence. Agents saw Howard and co-conspirators running out the back door of the residence attempting to evade law enforcement.

Approximately 30 minutes later, canine units with the Columbia Police Department were able to track Howard to a shed located inside a locked gate at a nearby residence and he was arrested.

A woman who lives at the address to which the second intercepted parcel was addressed reported to investigators that she was contacted by Howard prior to Nov. 6, 2015, and advised that a package was being sent to her residence.

West admitted that, following Howard’s arrest, and in an effort to have his cell phone locked and cause it to be unavailable to investigators, he called her and instructed her to contact Sprint and tell them that his iPhone, which had been seized by investigators, had been stolen. West also admitted that she accompanied Howard when he traveled to Columbia in September 2015 and assisted in the conspiracy.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Lynn. It was investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Columbia, Mo., Police Department and the Boone County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department.