U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig on Friday sentenced two of the final three defendants in a conspiracy that brought methamphetamine from California to St. Louis.
On Wednesday, Judge Fleissig sentenced Darius McCullum, 33, to 10 years in prison. McCullum, the Los Angeles-based supplier, provided some of the methamphetamine.
In April, McCullum pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine. He admitted to obtaining pounds of methamphetamine in California and then shipping it to Eric Williams in Detroit, Michigan. Williams then mailed the resulting proceeds back to McCullum.
Williams sold the drug to others around the country. Lethem Thompson-Bey obtained methamphetamine from Williams through Ashley D. Gibson in Lexington, Kentucky, and then sold it to Steven L. Bell and others in St. Louis.
The group transported and distributed illegal narcotics in several states, including California, Michigan, Missouri, Kentucky, and Texas. They used “stash” houses in Detroit, Lexington, St. Louis, and other locations to store drugs.
On April 21, 2021, investigators seized about 4.8 kilograms of methamphetamine. They seized another 8 kilograms of methamphetamine on May 4, 2021, and 3.5 kilograms on May 24, 2021. On August 23, 2021, a court-approved search warrant was executed at McCullum’s home in Los Angeles. Investigators found several pounds of marijuana and three guns, including one stolen in Little Rock, Arkansas, two years earlier, according to his plea agreement.
“Drug trafficking organizations, like the one involving McCullum, use every method possible to distribute their poison,” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Colin Dickey, head of Drug Enforcement Administration investigations in Eastern Missouri. “The DEA and our partners have shut down this operation, which shipped methamphetamine from Los Angeles to the Midwest. This network of street dealers then distributed it into our neighborhoods. Fortunately, we can now say this drug dealership is closed for business.”
On Friday, Judge Fleissig sentenced Jasmine C. Taylor, 35, to two years in prison and Haley B. Mason, 21, to the time she had already served behind bars. Taylor transported money and drugs for Williams and Gibson. Mason was caught with $65,250 in cash in a suitcase on April 22, 2021.
In June, Bell, 31, of St. Louis County, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In May, Williams, 32, of Jackson, Tenn., received a 186-month sentence. Gibson, 26, of Lexington, was sentenced to 78 months in prison in April. Thompson-Bey, 28, of St. Louis, received a 126-month sentence last August. All 20 defendants in the case pleaded guilty.
The defendants agreed to forfeit $181,000 in cash seized during the investigation, as well as jewelry, ammunition, three pistols, two AR-15-style rifles, and an AR-15-style pistol.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case.
