KC Man Sentenced for Meth Trafficking, Illegal Firearms

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Kansas City, Mo., man who threatened his co-workers with a firearm while he was on bond was sentenced in federal court today for distributing methamphetamine and illegally possessing firearms.

Reggie McDowell, also known as “Dime,” 27, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to 14 years and three months in federal prison without parole.

On Oct. 14, 2023, after McDowell was indicted and while he was on bond in this federal case, law enforcement officers responded to a disturbance with a firearm at a Raytown, Mo., restaurant where he was employed. McDowell was involved in an argument with a co-worker and brandished a firearm, which he retrieved from a bag he was wearing.

According to court documents, McDowell began pacing around the kitchen area and threatened to “kill everyone in here.” Restaurant employees contacted law enforcement and McDowell fled from the restaurant, but left the bag behind. Officers located the bag, which contained a loaded FN 9mm handgun, a loaded Glock .40-caliber firearm, a loaded Glock 10mm handgun, ammunition, and drug paraphernalia. McDowell’s bond was revoked and he was returned to federal custody.

On March 3, 2024, McDowell pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, two counts of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, and one count of receiving a firearm while under felony indictment and while on release.

By pleading guilty, McDowell admitted that he participated in the drug-trafficking conspiracy from Jan. 1, 2016, to June 23, 2022. McDowell sold methamphetamine to an undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on seven different occasions in 2021 and 2022. McDowell, who was visibly armed during four of those transactions, admitted to carrying a Glock .357-caliber handgun on at least one occasion.

McDowell and his co-conspirators used social media sites to arrange and facilitate the sale of illegal drugs. They held the pills out as purported ecstasy (MDMA), rather than methamphetamine.

On June 23, 2022, federal agents executed a search warrant at McDowell’s residence. Agents seized a Glock .40-caliber handgun loaded with 29 rounds of ammunition on the living room floor, approximately 240 grams of marijuana in a backpack on the living room floor, a fanny pack in the living room that contained 23 methamphetamine pills and approximately 41 grams of marijuana, an Arsenal 7.62-caliber pistol loaded with 61 rounds of ammunition under a bed in the bedroom, a Glock 10mm handgun loaded with 34 rounds under a bed in the bedroom, a Glock .40-caliber handgun loaded with 51 rounds under a bed in the bedroom, numerous methamphetamine pills in various locations in the bedroom, and assorted firearms magazines and ammunition.

McDowell is the eighth defendant to be sentenced in this case. Two co-defendants have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie C. Bradshaw. It was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.

KC Metro Strike Force

This prosecution was brought as a part of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Co-located Strike Forces Initiative, which provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location. This co-located model enables agents from different agencies to collaborate on intelligence-driven, multi-jurisdictional operations against a continuum of priority targets and their affiliate illicit financial networks. These prosecutor-led co-located Strike Forces capitalize on the synergy created through the long-term relationships that can be forged by agents, analysts, and prosecutors who remain together over time, and they epitomize the model that has proven most effective in combating organized crime. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking organizations, transnational criminal organizations, and money laundering organizations that present a significant threat to the public safety, economic, or national security of the United States.