Kansas City man sentenced to 10 years in prison in conspiracy to make meth near school
A 43-year-old Kansas City man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to make crystal methamphetamine near an elementary school, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.
A federal judge also ordered Ruben Ortiz-Vieyra to forfeit $1 million which was received for the distribution of the illegal drug. He is to spend 10 years on supervised release once he is released from prison, according to a news release from the federal prosecutor’s office.
The attorney for Ortiz-Vieyra declined to comment on the case.
Ortiz-Vieyra pleaded guilty in January to participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a school between January 2014 to May 2018. Three co-defendants have also pleaded guilty and await sentencing, according to the news release.
He also pleaded guilty to one count each of aiding and abetting the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a school, possessing or using firearms while trafficking drugs and conspiracy to possess or use firearms with drug trafficking.
Ortiz-Vieyra allegedly supplied the meth to a co-defendant, which was bought by a confidential informant in April and May of 2018, according to the prosecutor’s office.
When police executed a search warrant at a house he rented near George Melcher Elementary School, they found no furniture inside. Instead, there was “a black cooking stand that had a pan sitting on top that contained liquid methamphetamine,” according to the news release.
Ortiz-Vieyra turned liquid meth into a crystallized form for sale, prosecutors said.
