United States Drug Enforcement Administration

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A California man was sentenced in federal court today for transporting what court documents describe as “an extraordinary quantity of methamphetamine” in a borrowed car as he traveled from California through Missouri.

Johnny Jordan Thompson, 48, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to 15 years in federal prison without parole. Thompson was sentenced as a career offender due to his prior felony convictions.

On Dec. 21, 2021, Thompson pleaded guilty to one count of possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. Thompson admitted that he was transporting approximately 28 pounds of methamphetamine in the vehicle he was driving when he was pulled over by a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper on Sept. 12, 2019.

The trooper stopped Thompson, who was driving a loaned vehicle from a dealership in Ontario, Calif., on Interstate 70 in Cooper County. The trooper searched the vehicle and found 11 packages of methamphetamine, which weighed approximately 20 pounds (8.87 kilograms), in the trunk. Another approximately eight pounds (almost 3.3 kilograms) of methamphetamine was later found hidden under the carpet of the passenger floorboard.

According to court documents, Thompson has spent most of the past 20 years in prison on offenses ranging from vehicle theft to armed bank robbery to, most recently, attempted murder (after he was hired to kill someone). He was discharged from parole in the attempted murder case in California in December 2018 and committed this federal offense less than a year later.

This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.