Show-Me State Times

An Oklahoma City man has been sentenced in federal court for his involvement in a methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy in southwest Missouri. Edward Uribe, 37, received a 25-year sentence—equivalent to 300 months in federal prison without parole—from U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool. In addition to the prison term, Uribe was ordered to forfeit $210,000 obtained from drug trafficking.

Uribe had pleaded guilty on November 25, 2024, to charges of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

According to court documents, Uribe played a central role as a supplier for the organization distributing methamphetamine across several Missouri counties—Barry, Stone, Polk, Lawrence, Green, Jasper, and Newton—from November 1, 2020 through April 28, 2022. From February through April of 2022 alone, he helped distribute more than 460 pounds of methamphetamine from Oklahoma into southwest Missouri.

While incarcerated in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for an earlier methamphetamine conviction, Uribe used a contraband cell phone and messaging app to coordinate with co-conspirators. He arranged transportation and delivery of drugs and provided instructions on preparing them for sale. Additionally, he used proceeds from drug trafficking and communications via the app to arrange the purchase of a drone intended for smuggling drugs and other contraband into prison.

Uribe is one of twenty defendants who have pleaded guilty in this case; he is the eighteenth person sentenced so far.

"This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica R. Eatmon," according to officials involved in the proceedings. "It was investigated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs...and the U.S. Marshals Service."

The prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation that targets high-level criminal organizations using coordinated efforts among multiple agencies led by prosecutors driven by intelligence strategies. More information about OCDETF can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.