Bust yields 21 pounds of meth picked up at Overland Park hotel, federal charges say

Three men met at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Overland Park to pass on 21 pounds of methamphetamine that was intended to be distributed in the Springfield, Mo., area, according to a federal indictment filed last week.

The alleged conspiracy, tracked by a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task force, came to an end Oct. 15 when Missouri Highway Patrol troopers pulled over a pickup truck on Missouri 13 in Polk County with a meth-filled duffel bag behind the driver’s seat, the DEA said.

William F. Jones, 42; Jeffery K. Woosley, 32; and Justin L. Rhoads, 29, are charged with conspiracy to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine.

A DEA agent wrote in a federal affidavit that he became aware Oct. 11 that Jones would be traveling from his Fair Grove, Mo., home to the Kansas City area to obtain methamphetamine. Jones left that evening in a Volkswagen sedan with a woman, and was kept under surveillance as they arrived in the Kansas City area.

Over the next three days, Jones was seen meeting with Woosley, a neighbor of his from the Fair Grove area.

On Oct. 14 Rhoads arrived at the Embassy Suites Hotel in a white pickup truck and met with Jones and Woosley in the parking lot.

The next morning, agents saw Woosley leave on a motorcycle and drive to a nearby Walmart on Metcalf Avenue. He returned to the hotel with a duffel bag. Agents did not see which room Woosley entered in the hotel.

Later, agents saw Jones leave the hotel with the duffel bag. He and Rhoads put the bag behind the backseat of Rhoads’ pickup truck

Rhoads left the Kansas City area on U.S. 49, then turned toward Springfield on Missouri 13. He had gone about 120 miles from Overland Park when Missouri state troopers, coordinating with the DEA, stopped the truck.

The troopers found inside the duffel bag 10 plastic bags with methamphetamine, weighing a total of 21 pounds.

“I believe that Rhoads was transporting the methamphetamine back to the Springfield, Mo, area for Jones and Woosley for distribution,” the agent said in the affidavit.

Both Jones and Woosley remained in custody Sunday in the Greene County Detention Center in Springfield.

This story was originally published November 26, 2017 at 5:11 PM with the headline "Bust yields 21 pounds of meth picked up at Overland Park hotel, federal charges say."