Six Southern Missouri Residents Indicted for Large-Scale Meth Conspiracy
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that six southern Missouri residents have been indicted for their roles in a conspiracy to distribute large amounts of methamphetamine.
Michael Ryan Nevatt, 26, Kara Rene Baze, 23, and Scott Bryan Sands, 51, all of Springfield, Mo., Kenneth Bryant Lake, 55, of Strafford, Mo., Jerry Lee Brown, 43, of Lebanon, Mo., and Travis Lee Bethel, 45, of Urbana, Mo., were charged in an indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday, April 21, 2016.
The federal indictment alleges that Nevatt, Baze, Sands, Lake, Brown and Bethel participated in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine from Jan. 1, 2013, to April 21, 2016. According to the affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, a cooperating defendant was arrested by Buchanan County, Mo., sheriff’s deputies in St. Joseph, Mo., on July 20, 2015.
The cooperating defendant allegedly identified Nevatt as his source and told investigators that s/he accompanied Nevatt to Dallas, Texas, on multiple occasions to obtain multiple-pound quantities of methamphetamine, which was then transported back to Missouri for distribution. Nevatt was the middle man between Mexican methamphetamine suppliers and southern Missouri distributors Lake and Brown.
According to the affidavit, Lake told investigators that he was the “safe house” and received a percentage for keeping the money safe until he delivered it to Nevatt at a Springfield hotel. Nevatt would then deliver the money to the Mexican suppliers. Springfield investigators conducted a traffic stop on Nevatt’s motorcycle on July 29, 2015, and recovered approximately $66,000, allegedly money Nevatt owed to the Mexican suppliers.
On March 29, 2016, Nevatt was arrested following a traffic stop conducted by the Missouri State Highway Patrol in Webster County, Mo. Troopers seized approximately $39,000 that had been rolled up and wrapped in rubber bands in a plastic shopping bag. A dog alerted on the bag for the odor of controlled substances.
The indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation, which would require the defendants to forfeit to the government any property derived from the proceeds of the alleged offense, including a money judgment of $530,000. According to the indictment, this represents the amount received in exchange for the unlawful distribution of methamphetamine based on a conservative average street price of $1,000 per ounce and the total conspiracy distribution of at least 15 kilograms of methamphetamine.
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Key Facts
- State: Missouri
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Fraud & Financial Crimes|Violent Crime|Weapons
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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