15 defendants indicted in federal court for meth and fentanyl trafficking

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — 15 more defendants in a drug-trafficking conspiracy case involving 19 total defendants were indicted in federal court on Tuesday, October 1.

The following defendants were charged in the second 18-count superseding indictment:

• 34-year-old Stevie Delane Logan Jr. from Parsons, Kan.
• 36-year-old Daron Cortez Kelly from Parsons, Kan.
• 34-year-old Damion Williams from Parsons, Kan.
• 47-year-old Necole Jennings from Parsons, Kan.
• 25-year-old Osric Rashaad Edwards from Parsons, Kan.
• 54-year-old Shawn Weston Morris from Parsons, Kan.
• 37-year-old Rikkia Charnay Tolbert from Parsons, Kan.
• 52-year-old William Edward McKinzie from Joplin, Mo.
• 39-year-old Juston Dean Crane from Joplin, Mo.
• 54-year-old Gary Jay Watkins Jr. from Joplin, Mo.
• 55-year-old James Richard Sharp from Seneca, Mo.
• 39-year-old Jon Kurtis Smith from El Dorado, Kan.
• 28-year-old Christuffer Allen Roeder from Independence, Kan.
• 45-year-old William Earl Troester Jr. from Wichita, Kan.
• 27-year-old Kylei Paige Sullivan from St. Paul, Kan.

The initial indictment , dated Feb. 2, 2024, charged brothers Dontrell Anthony Powell, 34, and Dreshawn Powell, 27, from Springfield, Willie Murry Jr., 42, of Parsons, Kan., and Mark Mota Logan, 33, of Parsons, Kan., with drug-trafficking conspiracy. All four defendants remain in this second superseding indictment.

On Jan. 17, 2024, 100 pounds of methamphetamine and a kilogram of fentanyl pills were found hidden in a Dodge Magnum on a car hauler traveling from San Bernadino, California to Springfield, Missouri after it was stopped in Oklahoma City and searched by a state trooper. The four initial defendants were arrested the next day by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

During an investigation into the drug-trafficking operation on April 20, 2024, DEA agents intercepted a call from McKinzie requesting methamphetamine and was told he could obtain some from one of the defendants’ homes in Parsons, Kan. Four defendants were arrested at a Joplin hotel McKinzie was staying in.

A total of 17 defendants, excluding Tolbert and Sullivan, were alleged to have taken part in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl in Greene, Jasper and Newton Counties, as well as other locations, from January 2022 to April 2024.

A total of 14 defendants, with the exception of McKinzie, Crane, Morris, Sharp, and Watkins, were also alleged to have participated in a money-laundering operation.

Several defendants are also facing multiple counts of drug trafficking and illegally possessing firearms charges.

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