A 58-year-old Bates City man who was responsible for distributing nearly 100 kilograms of methamphetamine, has been sentenced in federal court to spend more than a decade in federal prison after law-enforcement officers seized nearly two dozen firearms and illegal drugs from his residence.
According to a press release from the Western District Court of Missouri, Daniel Dewayne Gregg was sentenced on Wednesday, August 11, to 10 years and 10 months without parole.
On April 8, 2021, Gregg pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.
According to court documents, Gregg was responsible for distributing 98 kilograms of methamphetamine. Law-enforcement officers identified Gregg as a major supplier of methamphetamine trafficking following several controlled-drug purchases. Officers executed a search warrant at Gregg’s residence on September 11, 2020, and placed him under arrest.
Gregg told officers that he had been dealing crystal methamphetamine continuously for at least the previous six months. Gregg said that he was a kilogram-level dealer of crystal methamphetamine, and had sold- at a conservative minimum- at least 12 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine per month over that period of time (and had been selling large amounts of methamphetamine for at least a year and a half). Gregg stated he had several large-scale customers who purchased at least a half-kilogram of methamphetamine from him at a time.
Gregg said one customer purchased one or two kilograms of methamphetamine each week. Gregg said he purchased methamphetamine for $12,000 per kilogram and sold it for about $13,000 per kilogram. Officers located a large firearms safe in the basement of Gregg’s residence that contained 22 firearms and a large amount of cash; in total, officers seized $22,240 from Gregg’s residence, which has been forfeited to the government.
Officers also searched Gregg’s vehicle and found 151.6 grams of methamphetamine, 436.5 grams of marijuana and 207 prescription pills that were identified to be either Xanax, Alprazolam, Clonazepam or Amphetamine and Dextroamphetamine pills, which were in unlabeled prescription pill bottles. Officers seized a total of 318 pills of scheduled controlled pharmaceutical prescriptions not in Gregg’s name. Officers also found methamphetamine inside a fanny pack. They found a loaded Smith and Wesson .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol on top of the fanny pack.
Gregg told officers he had the firearm because he had been threatened by individuals wanting to do him harm, and Gregg stated he had the firearm in case those individuals came to his residence to harm him.
According to court documents, Gregg was on supervised release at the time of this offense after serving a sentence of 100 months in federal prison for a conviction of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine. Gregg has numerous prior convictions, including multiple controlled substances convictions.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Trey Alford. It was investigated by the Kansas City Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Operation LeGend is a federal partnership with local law enforcement to address the increase in homicides and violent crime in Kansas City in 2020. The operation honors the memory of 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, one of the youngest fatalities during a record-breaking year of homicides and shootings. Additional federal agents were assigned to the operation from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Marshals Service.