Anthony Martinez Harris, Meth Trafficking at Camdenton Hotel, Missouri 2021

A Kansas City, Missouri man has been sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in federal prison without parole for his role in a massive methamphetamine trafficking operation at a Camdenton, Missouri hotel.

A federal jury found Anthony Martinez Harris, 49, guilty of one count of possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute on September 29, 2021. Harris’s sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes.

The operation uncovered by law enforcement in September 2019 was one of the largest methamphetamine seizures in Camden County, Missouri history. Hotel employees at the Sleep Inn on Highway 54 called Camdenton police officers to remove Harris, who was under the influence of drugs and had stayed past checkout time. When officers arrived and contacted Harris, who was locked out of the room, hotel staff opened the room door, revealing a large amount of cash on the bed and a line of cocaine on the coffee table.

Officers searched the room and found three-quarters of a kilogram of methamphetamine packaged for sale, a distribution amount of heroin, cocaine, PCP, and marijuana, three loaded pistols, and more than $22,000 in cash. Harris was questioned by a Camden County, Missouri sheriff’s deputy who arrived to assist the officers, and when officers searched the room they found an oblong object wrapped in camouflage fabric, which Harris identified as C-4 explosive.

Officers immediately contacted the Missouri State Highway Patrol bomb squad and began evacuating the hotel. The substance was later determined not to be an explosive. After the area was deemed safe, officers searched Harris’s hotel room and found a bag in a dresser drawer that contained approximately 28 grams of methamphetamine, a bag on one of the beds that contained approximately seven grams of cocaine, and a Ziploc bag on another bed that contained 18 bags of approximately 37 grams of heroin/opiates.

Harris also tried to bribe a hotel employee and the police officer who responded to the incident. At trial, Harris committed perjury in his testimony by denying knowledge of the methamphetamine in the hotel room and denying being aware of the presence of firearms. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Lynn and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Richenberger.

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