Houston Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Meth Conspiracy

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Houston, Texas man was sentenced in federal court today for his role in a conspiracy to distribute large quantities of methamphetamine in southwest Missouri.

Robert Canales, 34, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 15 years in federal prison without parole. Canales was sentenced as a career offender due to his prior convictions for robbery (in which he threatened the victim with a firearm) and possession with intent to deliver cocaine.

On Dec. 21, 2016, Canales pleaded guilty to participating in the conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in Greene, Polk, Christian, Jasper, Laclede, and Webster Counties from June 1, 2013, through Nov. 29, 2014.

Beginning in 2012, the Drug Enforcement Administration, assisted by other agencies, investigated one of the largest methamphetamine distribution rings in southwest Missouri. The investigation resulted in the indictment of 28 co-defendants.

According to court documents, Canales assisted co-defendant Nelson Olmeda, also known as “Diego,” 27, of Rosenberg, Texas, who was one of the major suppliers of methamphetamine to the drug-trafficking organization led by Daniel and Kenna Harmon of Republic, Mo. In 2013 through 2014, the Harmon drug-trafficking organization distributed in excess of 45 kilograms of methamphetamine in southwest Missouri. Law Enforcement believe that Canales’s role in the conspiracy was, in part, to provide protection to Olmeda’s drug distribution activity.

On Nov. 4, 2014, law enforcement arrested Olmeda as part of the investigation and seized two pounds of methamphetamine. On the same day, a co-conspirator took officers to a hotel room where Olmeda had been staying in the Lake of the Ozarks. In the hotel room law enforcement officers found another pound of methamphetamine and $20,000. Canales was staying in a separate bedroom at the same hotel, and assisted Olmeda in the transportation of the methamphetamine found in Olmeda’s possession to Missouri.

Canales was arrested on Dec. 22, 2014, while he and a co-conspirator were attempting to deliver a half pound of methamphetamine to a Springfield residence. The person inside the residence, according to court documents, was so confused or high that he called the police when they knocked on his door because he thought they were trying to rob him. Springfield police officers responded and found both men sitting in a car outside of the residence, with Canales in the rear of the vehicle. Officers smelled a strong odor of marijuana when they opened the car. When they searched the vehicle officers found a rolled-up sock containing approximately a half pound (222 grams) of methamphetamine.

Olmeda also pleaded guilty and was sentenced on June 20, 2017, to 20 years in federal prison without parole.

Kenna Harmon was arrested in November 2014. Agents searched various residences and vehicles belonging to Kenna Harmon and her co-conspirators and seized approximately five kilograms of methamphetamine and approximately $128,674. Kenna Harmon has pleaded guilty to being a leader in the drug-trafficking conspiracy as well as a money-laundering conspiracy and to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Daniel Harmon was indicted in the Eastern District of Missouri and pleaded guilty to possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute and to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Following his arrest and incarceration, Kenna Harmon continued to lead the drug-trafficking organization.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Randall D. Eggert, Nhan D. Nguyen and Cynthia J. Hyde. It was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, IRS-Criminal Investigation, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Springfield, Mo., Police Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).