‘Strike Force’ targets organized crime, drug trafficking in KC area, feds say
Federal prosecutors in Missouri and Kansas on Wednesday announced a multi-jurisdictional task force aimed at dismantling criminal organizations that traffic drugs and guns in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
During a news conference, prosecutors said they have joined forces in creating a local Strike Force, which they said will target gangs and cartels on both sides of the state line. It includes members from the FBI, the DEA and local police departments, among other agencies.
U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister of the District of Kansas called the prosecutor-led initiative the largest combination of federal and local law enforcement resources “ever assembled” in the area, citing the number of agents and agencies.
The regional Strike Force joins others in major cities across the country, such as Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston and Chicago. The initiative is overseen by the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces.
“Criminals don’t recognize state boundaries or county lines,” said Adam Cohen, director of the executive office of the federal organized task forces, “and neither will we.”
U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison of the Western District of Missouri said the initiative puts agents and officers under the same roof and gives them additional resources to “better protect our community from the violent scourge of drug trafficking.”
Drug trafficking charges
The task force, which launched locally in April, has already brought criminal charges.
One case ended with federal drug conspiracy charges against six men accused of selling heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl. Prosecutors said the drugs came from a pipeline that started in Mexico. The group’s street-level distributors were working within 1,000 feet of Wyandotte High School and Kensington Park in Kansas City, Kansas, according to an indictment.
In one Strike Force case, prosecutors charged 14 people after more than 220 pounds of meth were seized from a home in Kansas City, Kansas. In another, 20 people were indicted in a drug trafficking case in which agents seized 23 firearms and $75,000 cash.
While it’s not the exclusive cause, Garrison said, a “good chunk” of the shootings that have plagued the region stem from drugs.
McAllister noted a recent Louisville Courier Journal investigation that reported members of Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación, considered one of the most dangerous cartels, have bought property in midsize American cities, including Kansas City, Kansas. The cartel, run by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, commonly known as El Mencho, “has its fingers in the KC metro area,” he said.
The new Strike Force, McAllister said, will target the most violent people in the region, especially those who deal firearms.
Since 2016, the metro area has seen more than 850 homicides, according to data kept by The Star, which includes fatal police shootings and jurisdictions in Missouri and Kansas. Most of the victims have died by gunfire.
Asked about gun reform, Garrison said he would leave the discussion to lawmakers, but noted that if they banned the sale of firearms today, “they will still be with us for decades to come.”
In a statement about the initiative, Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith said working together will help “identify violent offenders and remove them from our streets.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 2:35 PM.
