15 Indicted for Trafficking Cocaine in Kansas
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – A federal grand jury in Kansas City, Kansas, returned an indictment charging 15 people with one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine.
According to court documents, the defendants allegedly intentionally conspired to distribute cocaine in the state of Kansas and elsewhere between January 2019 and September 2021.
The defendants include Santiago Gamboa-Saenz, 34, Maria Cota, 32, Efrain Garcia-Perez, 37, Dimas Calixto-Filho, 41, Juan Avarez-Perez, 35, Bryan Dominguez-Green, 20, Irlanda Grajeda, 31, Vladimir Blanco-Garciga, 49, Miguel Vazquez-Rodriguez, 35, Eduardo Ramirez-Ochoa, 32, Jesus Gonzalez-Rodriguez, 30, Homero Baca-Marquez, 23, Jaime Ocampo, 57, Jose Cera-Acosta, 35, and Frank De La Cruz, 36.
The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Northeast Kansas Drug Task Force is investigating the case, along with the Homeland Security Investigations.
“Drug trafficking organizations are all about making money,” said Assistant Agent in Charge Rogeana Patterson-King, DEA lead for the state of Kansas. “This joint federal and state investigation stopped more than a million dollars’ worth of cocaine from reaching our communities, and more than $730,000 of proceeds from returning to the organization. This is particularly satisfying because this illegal industry jeopardizes public safety with these dangerous drugs.”
This operation is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
