KC Man Sentenced to 20 Years for Drug Trafficking, Illegal Firearm
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Kansas City, Missouri, man was sentenced in federal court today for drug trafficking and illegally possessing a firearm.
Paris B. Young, 49, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to 20 years in federal prison without parole.
On Feb. 12, 2020, Young was found guilty at trial of possessing crack cocaine with the intent to distribute, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Kansas City, Mo., police officers stopped Young on June 16, 2018, because he failed to signal while making a turn at the intersection of 41st and Garfield Avenue in Kansas City. Young, who was driving a maroon BMW 650i, was seen making furtive movements by leaning towards the center console of the vehicle and placing items inside the center console. Young opened his car door and got out of the vehicle; he refused to listen to multiple commands by the officers to get back into the vehicle. While speaking with the officers, Young suddenly pushed off of one officer and began to run. The officer grabbed Young’s shirt and Young was immediately taken into custody.
Officers searched Young’s car and found a Taurus .45-caliber revolver, with an obliterated serial number, underneath the driver’s seat. The revolver was loaded with three .45-caliber Colt rounds of ammunition and two 410 shotgun shells in the cylinder. Officers also found a large plastic bag that contained 46 individually wrapped bags of crack cocaine, with a total weight of 12.49 grams, and 4.38 grams of marijuana in the center console of the vehicle.
Under federal law, it is illegal for anyone who has been convicted of a felony to be in possession of any firearm or ammunition. Young has prior felony convictions for murder, armed criminal action, possessing a controlled substance, and two prior felony convictions for distributing a controlled substance.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey Q. McCarther and Sean T. Foley. It was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.
Project Safe Neighborhoods
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is partnering with federal, state, and local law enforcement to specifically identify criminals responsible for significant violent crime in the Western District of Missouri. A centerpiece of this effort is Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program that brings together all levels of law enforcement to reduce violent crime and make neighborhoods safer for everyone. Project Safe Neighborhoods is an evidence-based program that identifies the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develops comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, Project Safe Neighborhoods focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
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