12 KC, St. Louis Area Residents Indicted for Meth Conspiracy

A dozen residents from the Kansas City and St. Louis areas have been indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in an $8.5 million drug-trafficking conspiracy that distributed more than 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine over two years.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says that 29-year old Trevor Scott Sparks, 38-year old Gerald L. Ginnings, 29-year old Gloria May Jones, 22-year old Vicente Araujo, 31-year old Leslie Ladon Walker, and 35-year old Paul J. Kibodeaux, all of Kansas City, MO, 36-year old Markus Michael A. Patterson, of Grandview, 31-year old David Robert Richards II, of Louisburg, KS, 39-year old Christian Douglas Hansen, of St. Louis, and 28-year old Stephanie Thurmond, 25-year old Leeanna Michelle Schroeder, and 30-year old Adam Joseph Mainieri, all of Winfield, MO, were charged in a four-count superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, MO on Wednesday, December 12.

That indictment was unsealed and made public upon the arrests of several defendants.

The federal indictment alleges that 11 of the defendants (with the exception of Sparks) participated in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine from January 2017 - December 2018. According to the indictment, conspirators received $8,508,500 in exchange for the unlawful distribution of more than 1,001 pounds of methamphetamine, which is based on an average street price of $8,500 per pound..

Sparks is charged with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise that involved the distribution of methamphetamine. The indictment indicates Scott was the principal leader of the criminal enterprise and obtained substantial income from the criminal enterprise.

All the defendants are also charged with participating in a money-laundering conspiracy during that time to use drug sale proceeds to promote the drug-trafficking conspiracy and to conceal the proceeds of the conspiracy.

Eleven of the defendants (with the exception of Kibodeaux) are charged together with possessing firearms in furtherance of violent crimes and drug-trafficking crimes.

Ginnings, Sparks, Patterson, Jones, Hansen and Mainieri also are charged together in one count of being felons in possession of firearms and ammunition.

Additionally, the indictment contains a forfeiture allegation, which would require the defendants to forfeit to the government any property obtained from the proceeds of the drug-trafficking conspiracy, including a money judgment of $8,508,500.