Phoenix Man Indicted for Possessing Meth to Distribute

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Phoenix, Ariz., man was indicted by a federal grand jury today after being arrested at a local bus station with nearly five kilograms of methamphetamine in his duffle bag.

Jose A. Escajeda, 21, of Phoenix, was charged with possessing methamphetamine to distribute in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo. Today’s indictment replaces a federal criminal complaint that was filed against Escajeda on Sept. 12, 2017.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, law enforcement officers contacted Escajeda at a Kansas City, Mo., bus terminal on Sept. 11, 2017. He told officers he was traveling to Minneapolis, Minn., and showed them his bus ticket. 

Officers utilized a K-9 for a sniff check of Escajeda’s duffle bag, and the K-9 indicated a positive alert for the odor of narcotics. When officers searched Escajeda’s duffle bag, they found three individually wrapped bundles concealed under clothing inside the bag. The bundles contained a total of 10.2 pounds, or approximately 4,626.72 grams of methamphetamine.

Larson cautioned that the charge contained in this indictment is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily A. Morgan. It was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.