Jury Convicts KC Man of Meth Trafficking at Camdenton Hotel

 Officers Seized Four Loaded Firearms, Large Amounts of Drugs, Cash

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A Kansas City, Missouri, man has been convicted by a federal trial jury of possessing methamphetamine to distribute.

Anthony Martinez Harris, 48, was found guilty on Wednesday, Sept. 29, of one count of possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute.

On Sept. 26, 2019, employees at the Sleep Inn on Highway 54 called Camdenton, Mo., police officers to remove Harris from the property. When officers arrived and contacted Harris, hotel staff used a key card to open the hotel room door because Harris’s key card had been deactivated. When they opened the door, officers saw a large amount of cash on the room’s bed and a line of cocaine on the coffee table.

Harris was questioned by a Camden County, Mo., sheriff’s deputy who arrived to assist the officers. When officers searched the room they found an oblong object wrapped in camouflage fabric, which Harris identified as C-4 explosive. Officers immediately contacted the Missouri State Highway patrol bomb squad and began evacuating the hotel. The substance was later determined not to be an explosive.

After the area was deemed safe, officers searched Harris’s hotel room and found a bag in a dresser drawer that contained approximately 28 grams of methamphetamine, a bag on one of the beds that contained approximately seven grams of cocaine, a Ziploc bag on another bed that contained 18 bags of approximately 37 grams of heroin/opiates, a Dollar General bag on the same bed that contained approximately 224 grams of methamphetamine, a Ziploc bag on the bed that contained small bags of marijuana, and a brown leather bag that contained 10 tablets of Oxycodone Hydrochloride, nine Ziploc bags that each contained approximately one gram of heroin/opiates, and a Ziploc bag that contained approximately 28 grams of cocaine. Officers also found a Springfield Armory sub-compact 9mm handgun and a loaded magazine, a Glock 9mm handgun and a loaded magazine, a Glock .40-caliber handgun and a loaded magazine, additional ammunition, $11,259, and assorted drug paraphernalia.

Officers also searched Harris’s vehicle and found a Black Dawn Armory custom-made AR-15-style .223-caliber rifle loaded with a 30-round magazine in the trunk. Officers also found a plastic bag that contained an assortment of approximately 500 ecstasy tablets and additional ammunition in the vehicle.

Following the presentation of evidence, the jury in the U.S. District Court in Jefferson City, Mo., deliberated for about two hours before returning the guilty verdicts to U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes on Wednesday, Sept. 29, ending a trial that started on Monday, Sept. 28.

Under federal statutes, Harris is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of life in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Lynn and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Richenberger. It was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Camden County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, the Camdenton, Mo., Police Department, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Lake Area Narcotics Enforcement Group,