Joplin man convicted in meth trafficking conspiracy draws lengthy prison term
May 11—SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A federal judge has sentenced a 33-year-old man to 19 years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in the Joplin area.
At a sentencing hearing Friday in federal court in Springfield, U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark ordered Johnny T. Taylor to serve the term without parole.
Taylor, of Joplin, pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute meth shipped to Missouri from Arizona via the United Parcel Service. A co-defendant, Jennifer M. Conant, 41, also of Joplin, pleaded guilty to her role in the conspiracy in August 2018 and was sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison without parole.
According to the U.S. attorney's office in Springfield, agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration tracked a package containing a pound of meth from its point of origin in Arizona to an address in Seneca, where a controlled delivery was carried out May 7, 2017.
DEA agents and officers with the Newton County Sheriff's Department and Ozark Drug Enforcement Team served a search warrant at the address shortly after the package was delivered and located it in a bedroom of the residence.
The occupant of the address told investigators that Taylor and Conant had arranged to have the package shipped to that address and had contacted him about it just before officers arrived with the search warrant. Officers then had him contact Conant to tell her the package was there and she and Taylor were arrested when they came to pick it up about 45 minures later, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
