El Dorado Springs Man Sentenced to 19 Years for Meth Conspiracy, Illegal Firearm

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that an El Dorado Springs, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for his role in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and for illegally possessing a firearm.

Daniel A. Crawford, 37, of El Dorado Springs, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips to 19 years in federal prison without parole.

On Sept. 8, 2016, Crawford pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.

Crawford was arrested on Jan. 22, 2015, when Vernon County, Mo., sheriff’s deputies were called to a burglary in progress. The victim (and caller) had blocked Crawford and another person in the driveway. Crawford was sitting in the driver’s seat of the blocked-in Chevrolet truck when deputies arrived. Crawford had a piece of glass in his pocket that field tested positive for methamphetamine.

Deputies searched the truck and found 11 grams of methamphetamine in a Mountain Dew bottle with a false compartment, scales, baggies, a Mountain Arms .22-caliber rifle, ammunition and stolen property.

Crawford admitted that he and co-defendant Marklee Eugene Bogart, 36, of Nevada, Mo., had an agreement to deal methamphetamine with and for one another.  When law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Bogart’s residence on Aug. 20, 2014, they found 176 grams of pure methamphetamine, 22 firearms, a grenade and $9,400, which was determined to be the proceeds of drug trafficking.  Later in August, after listening to his jail phone calls, law enforcement seized another $41,380 from Bogart.

Bogart was sentenced on Jan. 19, 2017, to five years in federal prison without parole after pleading guilty to his role in the drug-trafficking conspiracy and to possessing firearms in furtherance of the conspiracy.

This case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Josephine M. Larison. It was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Vernon County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department and the Bates County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department.