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Oct. 12, 2023St. Joseph, Mo. |  By: Jeremy Werner

St. Joseph man sentenced in drug case

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ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - A St. Joseph man, has been sentenced to 17 years in federal prison without parole for his involvement in a heroin distribution conspiracy and illegal possession of firearms.

Roderick Hughes, 48, pleaded guilty May 2022 to conspiring to distribute over a kilogram of heroin in the St. Joseph area between September 2019 and March 2021, and possessing a firearm for drug trafficking.

Court documents reveal Hughes distributed at nearly 462 grams of heroin, equivalent to over 4,600 potentially lethal doses.

Law enforcement found firearms and heroin during a search of Hughes's apartment in February 2021. Co-defendant Franklin Hicks Junior will be sentenced on November 1st, after pleading guilty to the same charges.

Another co-defendant, Harvey Johnson of Kansas City, Missouri, admitted to his role in the conspiracy involving at least two kilograms of heroin and is set to be sentenced on October 26.

The case was investigated by multiple agencies, including the St. Joseph Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration.