Northeast News
February 18, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — A Mexican national pleaded guilty in federal court to distributing methamphetamine and illegally possessing a firearm after he attempted to rob an undercover police detective during a drug buy in the Historic Northeast.

Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said in a press release Luis Alberto Vasquez-Pena, 24, a citizen of Mexico residing in Kansas City, Mo., pleaded guilty on Wednesday, Feb. 4, to two counts of distributing methamphetamine and one count of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm.

According to the plea agreement, Vasquez-Pena met an undercover officer near the corner of St. John and Hardesty Avenues, got into the officer’s vehicle and instructed the officer to drive to a house near East Ninth Street and Bales Court, just blocks from the initial meeting point. When he asked the undercover officer for the money, the officer said he had the money, but wasn’t going to pay without getting the methamphetamine. Vasquez-Pena explained that he would have to walk two or three houses up the street to get the drugs, and that the dealer would not let five ounces of methamphetamine “walk out the door” without getting paid first. The undercover officer gave Vasquez-Pena $4,500, to which he then proceeded to get out of the vehicle, walk north on Bales Court, get into his Dodge Durango and immediately leave the area.

By pleading guilty, Vasquez-Pena admitted that he intended to rob the undercover officer when he agreed to sell five ounces of methamphetamine for $4,500. Vasquez-Pena admitted that he sold the undercover officer methamphetamine on two occasions in June 2014, and agreed to sell five ounces of methamphetamine for $900 per ounce on Aug. 14, 2014.

Law enforcement officers attempted to stop the Durango, but Vasquez-Pena refused to stop and a high-speed chase ensued that eventually led into Kansas City, Kan. Officers found the Durango abandoned in a business parking lot. A few minutes later, federal agents discovered Vasquez-Pena hiding under a car in a nearby salvage yard. Officers also recovered the $4,500 in pre-recorded buy money. Agents searched the Durango and found a loaded Ruger .45-caliber pistol and another loaded handgun concealed under the driver’s seat.

Vasquez-Pena, who admitted that he was born in Mexico and is illegally in the United States, told officers that he could not get the five ounces of methamphetamine and intended to take the money from the undercover officer. Vasquez-Pena also admitted that he had traded an eight-ball of methamphetamine for the Ruger pistol two or three weeks earlier.

Under federal statutes, Vasquez-Pena is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of 90 years in federal prison without parole. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a pre-sentence investigation by the United States Probation Office. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin G. Davids. It was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.