Callaway County Man Sentenced for Facilitating Brother's Drug-trafficking Conspiracy

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Callaway County, Mo., man has been sentenced in federal court for facilitating his brother’s drug-trafficking conspiracy. Two other individuals from mid-Missouri have also been sentenced for their roles in the drug-trafficking conspiracy.

Gary Randall Holloway, 34, of Callaway County, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan on Monday, Aug. 26, 2013, to four years in federal prison without parole, the statutory maximum penalty.

In a separate but related case, Jeffrey Cordell Patterson, 41, of Fulton, and Damon Reed Lower, 37, of Columbia, Mo., were also sentenced yesterday for their roles in the drug-trafficking conspiracy. Patterson was sentenced to seven years and six months in federal prison without parole. Lower was sentenced to two years and six months in federal prison without parole.

On March 18, 2013, Gary Holloway pleaded guilty to using a telephone to facilitate a drug-trafficking conspiracy. Federal investigators intercepted telephone calls between Gary Holloway and his brother, Jason Randall Holloway, 33, of Callaway County. During those conversations, Gary Holloway made arrangements to pay his brother for two pounds of marijuana he had been fronted. Gary Holloway later admitted that his brother had fronted him the marijuana so that he could make money after his release from prison.

Jason Holloway awaits sentencing after pleading guilty in the separate but related case to participating in a conspiracy to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana and five kilograms or more of cocaine from 2007 to September 2010. Jason Holloway also pleaded guilty to three additional counts of possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute, distributing marijuana and possessing marijuana and cocaine with the intent to distribute.

At the time of his guilty plea, Jason Holloway acknowledged that he had been acquiring approximately 50 pounds of marijuana and one kilogram of cocaine each month for the past two years from his sources in Kansas City, Mo. – primarily co-defendant Jaime Cerros-Perez, also known as Leonel Espinoza, Jr., 31. Cerros-Perez was sentenced on Sept. 27, 2012, to seven years and three months in federal prison without parole after pleading guilty to his role in the conspiracy.

Jason Holloway stored bulk amounts of marijuana at Lower’s residence. Law enforcement officers seized approximately 117 pounds of marijuana from that residence on July 10, 2010.

Lower pleaded guilty on Feb. 25, 2013, to his role in the conspiracy to distribute marijuana. As part of his plea, Lower admitted that he began buying distribution amounts of marijuana from Jason Holloway in mid-to-late 2007 and that in November 2007 he began transporting bulk shipments of marijuana from the Kansas City area. Lower estimated that he made one to two trips a month, usually acquiring 50-100 pounds.

On March 18, 2013, Patterson pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Patterson’s plea agreement acknowledged that he had been intercepted multiple times on the telephone in what were believed to be drug-related conversations and that, according to a co-defendant statement, Patterson was Jason Holloway’s primary cocaine customer, buying approximately nine ounces of cocaine three times a month for between $1,000 and $1,200 per ounce.

This case was being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren E. Kummerer. It was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, MUSTANG (the Mid-Missouri Unified Strike Team And Narcotics Group), the Fulton, Mo., Police Department, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Columbia, Mo., Police Department, the Callaway County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department and the Boone County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department.