13 Indicted in Kansas City on Methamphetamine, Cocaine and Machine Gun Charges
On June 20, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury had indicted 13 people for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine, along with numerous counts of distribution, illegal possession of machine guns and other offenses. The case is before a federal court in Kansas City, a city in Jackson County, Missouri. Of the 13 defendants, ten are Mexican nationals, one is a Guatemalan national and two are United States citizens.
The forty-count indictment was returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City on June 11, 2025, and was unsealed after those in custody made their initial appearances. The Justice Department said the investigation ran from January 2024 through June 2025, and investigators seized approximately 40 kilograms of methamphetamine, two kilograms of cocaine and 11 firearms, three of which had been equipped with machine gun conversion devices and functioned as fully automatic weapons.
A law enforcement operation on June 18, 2025, resulted in nine arrests. Three defendants were already in custody and one remained at large, and the operation also seized nine additional firearms. The first-named defendant, Uriel Lopez-Farias, 31, a Mexican national, is charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, distribution of methamphetamine, alien in possession of a firearm, illegal possession of a machine gun, and distribution and attempted distribution of cocaine, charges that carry up to life imprisonment. Several co-defendants face the same maximum, while Kenneth Baez, a U.S. citizen, is charged with illegal possession of a machine gun and felon in possession of a firearm, carrying up to 15 years.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Megan A. Baker and Heather Siegele and was investigated by the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Homeland Security Investigations and the Jackson County Drug Task Force, among others. The Justice Department said the case is part of Operation Take Back America and the Kansas City Regional Homeland Security Task Force. The charges are only allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：从 Liberty Memorial 望向堪萨斯城市中心。Brian Hillegas 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, seen from the Liberty Memorial. Photo by Brian Hillegas, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
