6 Kansas drug traffickers sentenced to federal prison

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Six people were sentenced in federal court Friday to prison terms following their convictions resulting from a federal drug investigation in metropolitan Kansas City dubbed "Operation Broken Bone."

These sentences resulted from a targeted investigation by the following agencies: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); and the Kansas City (Missouri) Police Department.

Operation Broken Bone was a multi-agency investigation into a drug trafficking organization that operated from January 2006 to November 2011 to distribute cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

The following defendants were sentenced May 16 to federal prison:

• Damian Mays, 24, Kansas City, Kansas, 235 months;
• Verdell Mays, 37, Kansas City, Kansas, 225 months;
• Christopher Holliday, 26, 114 months;
• Frank Sharron Piper III, 35, Kansas City, Kansas, 135 months;
• Brenton Bassett, 38, Kansas City, Kansas, 84 months; and
• Cynthia Hatfield, 32, Kansas City, Kansas, three months.

At the sentencing, prosecutors told the judge the defendants conspired together to distribute drugs and to maintain multiple Kansas City-area residences where the drugs were stored, consumed or distributed. The investigators arranged to buy drugs from the defendants and served search warrants in which drugs, money and firearms were seized.

Fourteen other defendants from this investigation include the following:

• Gregory T. Moore, 37, Kansas City, Kansas, awaiting sentencing;
• Daniel Bryant, 34, Kansas City, Missouri, awaiting sentencing;
• Johnie Mitchell, 60, Kansas City, Kansas, sentenced to 35 months;
• Marcus M. Williams, 35, Overland Park, Kansas, awaiting sentencing;
• Michael D. Davis, 33, Kansas City, Kansas, sentenced to 40 months;
• Ondre Durham, 40, Kansas City, Kansas, sentenced to 30 months;
• Rahmann Easley, 35, Kansas City, Kansas, set to be sentenced July 17;
• Charles Easley, 38, Kansas City, Kansas, awaiting sentencing;
• Joshua Jones, 28, Kansas City, Kansas, awaiting sentencing;
• Raymond Cornejo, 53, Kansas City, Kansas, awaiting sentencing;
• Lamar Brooks, 38, Kansas City, Missouri, set to be sentenced Oct. 21;
• Christopher Craig, 31, Kansas City, Missouri, set to be sentenced July 15;
• Jacquel Cunningham, 22, Kansas City, Kansas, set to be sentenced Aug. 5; and
• Anthony Smith, 41, Kansas City, Missouri, awaiting sentencing.