Man sentenced for role in meth ring connecting Mexican drug cartel to Missouri

A federal judge in Kansas City sentenced a 27-year-old Bakersfield, Calif., man to federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute more than $1 million in methamphetamine in cooperation with a Mexican drug cartel.

Lanny Eugene Ham was sentenced to 9 years and 10 months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of more than $1 million.

Ham pleaded guilty in July to participating in a conspiracy to distribute meth in southern Missouri and the Kansas City area and money laundering, according to a press release from the U.S. District Attorney’s office in Kansas City.

Co-defendant Kenneth Bryant Lake, 57, of Strafford, Mo., was the head a drug-trafficking organization, federal prosecutors said. He coordinated shipments of meth from a Mexican cartel source in Texas to Springfield, Mo., where others divided it up for distribution in Lebanon, Mo., and the Kansas City area.

Co-defendant Michael Ryan Nevatt, 29, of Springfield, subsequently became the head of the organization and made trips to California and Texas to purchase the drug. Ham assisted Nevatt in obtaining more than five kilograms of meth and with collecting drug proceeds.

Lake pleaded guilty for his role and awaits sentencing.

Nevatt, who was convicted at trial in April, is the final defendant waiting to be sentenced, among 15 co-defendants who have been convicted in the case.