St. Louis Man Charged with Drug Trafficking after Officers Seized 31 Pounds of Meth from Luggage

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A St. Louis, Mo., man traveling by bus from Los Angeles, Calif., was charged in federal court today with possessing methamphetamine to distribute after more than 31 pounds of methamphetamine was found in his luggage at a Kansas City, Mo., bus station.

Cregg L. Matthews, 52, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., with possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. Matthews, who was arrested on Saturday, March 9, 2019, remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing on Thursday, March 14, 2019.

According to an affidavit filed in support of today’s federal criminal complaint, law enforcement officers were conducting drug interdiction activities at a local bus station at about 10:27 p.m. Saturday, March 9, 2019. A bus arrived from Los Angeles en route to St. Louis, and a Kansas City, Mo., police detective used a service canine to check the luggage under the bus in the luggage bins. When all the passengers were off the bus, they also checked the luggage in the passenger compartment.

The police service canine alerted to Matthews’s suitcase, which was in the overhead bin above his seat on the bus. In the meantime, another detective had already stopped Matthews because he could smell marijuana on him. Matthews was carrying a black bag, the affidavit says, to which the police service canine also alerted. Matthews also had some methamphetamine and marijuana in his pants pocket.

When investigators searched the black bag Matthews was carrying, the affidavits says, they found 10 bundles of methamphetamine that weighed a total of 10 pounds and some marijuana. In the suitcase retrieved from the bus, investigators found 16 bundles of methamphetamine that weighed a total of 21.6 pounds.

The charge contained in this complaint is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce A. Rhoades and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean T. Foley. It was investigated by MoWIN (the Missouri Western Interdiction and Narcotics Task Force) and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Kansas City Interdiction Task Force.