July 31, 2020

Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Missouri

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Eleven residents in the Kansas City, Missouri, and St. Joseph, Missouri, areas have been added to a federal indictment that now charges a total of 25 defendants for their roles in a $4.1 million drug-trafficking conspiracy that distributed more than 520 kilograms of methamphetamine over three years.

Bobbie Lynn King, 51, and Patricia Gail Nelson, also known as “Mama Pat,” 60, both of Kansas City, Missouri; Michael Glen Zieger, also known as “Lee’s Summit Mike,” 43, of Lee’s Summit, Missouri; Amanda Leigh Watson, 33, of St. Joseph, Missouri; and Logan Tanner Laws, 28, of Shelbina, Missouri, were arrested on July 23, 2020, after being charged in a six-count superseding indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City on July 21, 2020. That indictment was unsealed and made public following their arrests.

Additionally, Rory Dale Bechtel, 37, of Kansas City, Mo.; Phillip Tra Joseph Hoyt, 43, of St. Joseph, Kenneth James McClure, 41, of Kingdom City, Missouri; Christapher Dean Parton, 31, of St. Joseph, and Marion Douglas McCrorey Jr., 40, of Rich Hill, Missouri, each of whom are already in custody on unrelated state and federal cases, were charged in the superseding indictment. Christopher Brian Rogan, 44, no known address, was also charged in the superseding indictment and is a fugitive from justice.

The superseding indictment replaces an earlier indictment and includes additional defendants. Defendants originally charged in the indictment are Trevor Scott Sparks, 31, Gerald L. Ginnings, 40, Gloria May Jones, 30, Vicente Araujo, 23, Leslie Ladon Walker, 33, and Paul J. Kibodeaux, 37, all of Kansas City, Mo.; Markus Michael A. Patterson, 37, of Grandview, Mo.; David Robert Richards II, 32, of Louisburg, Kan.; Christian Douglas Hansen, 41, of St. Louis, Mo.; and Stephanie Thurmond, 29, Leeanna Michelle Schroeder, 27, and Adam Joseph Mainieri, 32, all of Winfield, Mo.

The federal indictment alleges that all of the defendants, with the exception of Sparks, participated in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine from Jan. 1, 2017, to July 21, 2020. According to the indictment, conspirators received $4,160,000  in exchange for the unlawful distribution of more than 520 kilograms of methamphetamine, based on an average street price of $8,000 per kilogram of methamphetamine.

Sparks is charged with one count of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise that involved the distribution of at least 10 kilograms of methamphetamine. According to the indictment, Sparks was the principal leader of the criminal enterprise and obtained substantial income from the criminal enterprise.

All of 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 that drug-trafficking conspiracy.

Each of the defendants, with the exception of Kibodeaux, Rogan, and McClure, are charged together with possessing multiple firearms in furtherance of violent crimes and drug-trafficking crimes.

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

Araujo, Walker, Thurmond, Schroeder, Meyers, Hack, Bechtel, Laws, and Parton also are charged together in one count of being drug users in possession of multiple firearms and ammunition.

The indictment also 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 $4,160,000.

The charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Rhoades. It was investigated by the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department, the FBI, and the Buchanan County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department. 

KC Metro Strike Force
This prosecution was brought as a part of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Co-located Strike Forces Initiative, which provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location. This co-located model enables agents from different agencies to collaborate on intelligence-driven, multi-jurisdictional operations against a continuum of priority targets and their affiliate illicit financial networks. These prosecutor-led co-located Strike Forces capitalize on the synergy created through the long-term relationships that can be forged by agents, analysts, and prosecutors who remain together over time, and they epitomize the model that has proven most effective in combating organized crime. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking organizations, transnational criminal organizations, and money laundering organizations that present a significant threat to the public safety, economic, or national security of the United States.