Southwest Honkys gang member sentenced to 25 years for meth trafficking conspiracy

(From the U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri)

A Fair Grove, Missouri, man who is a member of the Southwest Honkys violent prison gang was sentenced in federal court today for his role in a drug-trafficking conspiracy in which investigators intercepted a shipment of nearly 9.5 kilograms of methamphetamine.

William F. Jones, 45, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 25 years in federal prison without parole.

On May 21, 2020, Jones pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in Christian County, Greene County, and Polk County, Missouri, from Dec. 21, 2016, to Oct. 15, 2017.

Jones was identified as a high-level member of the Southwest Honkys prison gang who had declined a top leadership role.

Jones, under the surveillance of law enforcement, drove to the Kansas City, Missouri area on Oct. 11, 2017, and checked into an Independence, Mo., hotel. A few days later, co-defendant Justin L. Rhoads, 33, of Lebanon, Mo., met Jones in the hotel’s parking lot. 

They put a large duffel bag in the cab of Rhoads’s pickup truck, and he left the parking lot. Rhoads was later stopped by a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper on Missouri Highway 13, just south of Humansville, Mo. 

The trooper searched Rhoads’s vehicle and found 10 Ziploc-style plastic bags inside the duffel bag that contained a total of approximately 9,439 grams of methamphetamine, which was determined to be at least 93 percent pure.

Rhoads pleaded guilty to his role in the drug-trafficking conspiracy and was sentenced on Jan. 21, 2021, to 12 years in federal prison without parole.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Josephine L. Stockard. It was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Springfield, Mo., Police Department, the Combined Ozarks Multi-Jurisdictional Enforcement Team, the Greene County, Missouri, Sheriff’s Office, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol,