Operation Blockbuster
KC Man Sentenecd to 30 Years for Multi Million Dollar Drug Trafficking Conspiracy
Mexican Drug Cartels Smuggled Hundreds of Kilograms of Cocaine to KC
KANSAS CITY, Mo. B Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that two Kansas City, Mo., men and a St. Paul, Minn., man were sentenced in federal court today for their roles in one of the largest cocaine trafficking rings in the Kansas City area.
Operation Blockbuster dismantled a local drug-trafficking organization that smuggled hundreds of kilograms of cocaine worth millions of dollars from Mexico to distribute in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Operation Blockbuster was a multi-agency investigation that also involved the U.S. Attorney=s Office in Kansas, resulting in three separate indictments that charged 31 defendants.
Dandrae L. Jones, also known as ABird,@ 35, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Nanette K. Laughrey to 30 years in federal prison without parole. Michael D. Davis, 27, of Kansas City was sentenced to four years and six months in federal prison without parole. Miguel Villa, 32, of St. Paul, was sentenced to two years and nine months in federal prison without parole.
On June 30, 2011, a jury convicted Jones of conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine from Jan. 1, 2007, to Feb. 11, 2010. In the same trial, Villa was found guilty of bulk cash smuggling for attempting to transport $300,000 in hidden compartments of a Ford F-150 truck. Co-defendant Edward W. Jefferson, 40, also known as "Black Walt," of Kansas City, was also found guilty of participating in the drug-trafficking conspiracy and awaits sentencing.
On June 8, 2011, Davis pleaded guilty to his role in the drug-trafficking conspiracy. Davis was recorded approximately 68 times on a court-authorized telephone wiretap. The nature and substance of many of the phone calls were about the distribution of cocaine.
In two separate but related cases, five defendants have been convicted at trial and 15 pleaded guilty.
Evidence introduced during the trial indicated that the leader of the conspiracy, Alejandro S. Corredor, also known as ALou Lou,@ ARolo,@ and AAlex,@ 37, a citizen of Colombia residing in Kansas City, Mo., had connections with a Mexican drug cartel. Corredor is among the defendants who pleaded guilty in a separate but related case and awaits sentencing.
Corredor called his supplier in Mexico to order cocaine to be delivered to the Kansas City metropolitan area. A normal load of cocaine would be from 20 to 50 kilograms, which was smuggled in vehicles driven to Kansas City from Mexico. After Corredor sold the cocaine and collected the money, he packaged the cash in bundles that were hidden in false compartments of various vehicles. The vehicles would then deliver the money to the El Paso, Texas, area, where it would be transported across the border into Mexico.
Jones, a local rap artist and owner of Block Life Entertainment, was one of Corredor=s biggest distributors in the Kansas City area. Corredor invested $200-250,000 in Block Life Entertainment, and allowed Jones to live rent-free in one of his residential properties.
Jefferson was also a rap artist and one of Corredor=s distributors. Villa was a courier who transported $300,000 in drug-trafficking proceeds from Kansas City to Mexico in hidden compartments of his Ford F-150 truck.
During Operation Blockbuster, law enforcement officers seized large quantities of cocaine and marijuana and millions of dollars in drug proceeds. For example, while executing a search warrant at a Kansas City, Mo., residence, officers seized 46 kilogram bundles of cocaine, $151,000, and a drug ledger. The ledger showed that during a four-month period of time this drug-trafficking organization distributed more than 800 kilograms of cocaine and received $10 million in drug proceeds.
Law enforcement officers also seized more than $1.6 million that was hidden in two vehicles on March 9, 2009. Agents were conducting surveillance at a Kansas City residence that day when they observed conspirators hiding what they learned were bundles of cash inside the door panels of a Jeep Cherokee. The Jeep was stopped by a trooper with the Missouri State Highway Patrol while traveling through Cass County, Mo. During a search of the Jeep and a Nissan that was being towed, the trooper recovered 163 bundles of cash. Among several other cash seizures, officers seized nearly $654,000 in a traffic stop on May 9, 2009, and more than $50,000 from another vehicle on May 19, 2009, all of which was proceeds from the drug-trafficking conspiracy.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph M. Marquez and Patrick D. Daly. It was investigated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, IRS-Criminal Investigation and the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.
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This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is available on-line at
http://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/index.html
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