JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that two Columbia, Mo., men have pleaded guilty to their roles in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine after law enforcement officers seized several pounds of methamphetamine.
Ryan Roger Ellingboe, 40, of Columbia, pleaded guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Matt J. Whitworth to the charge contained in a June 15, 2015, federal indictment. Co-defendant Shane Alan Callahan, 30, of Columbia, pleaded guilty to the same charge on Sept. 3, 2015.
Ellingboe and Callahan each pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in Boone County and elsewhere from April 2015 to May 14, 2015.
A deputy with the St. Charles County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department stopped a Cadillac Escalade driven by Ellingboe for a traffic violation on May 14, 2015. Callahan was a passenger in the vehicle. The deputy smelled burnt marijuana upon approaching the vehicle and conducted a search of the vehicle. The deputy found a vacuum-sealed bag that contained approximately one pound of methamphetamine behind the glove box.
Ellingboe and Callahan told law enforcement officers they had traveled from Columbia that morning to meet a customer in St. Charles, Mo., who wanted to purchase the methamphetamine. Callahan stated that he was brokering the methamphetamine transaction between Ellingboe and another individual. According to today’s plea agreement, Ellingboe explained to Callahan that he had access to a pound of methamphetamine and asked Callahan if he knew of a customer. Callahan located a customer in St. Charles who wanted to purchase one pound of methamphetamine. When Ellingboe picked up Callahan in Columbia that morning, he was already in possession of the one pound of methamphetamine. Ellingboe and Callahan then began driving to St. Charles to complete the transaction.
Ellingboe told officers he had acquired the methamphetamine from a co-defendant who was staying at the Howard Johnson Inn in Columbia. Law enforcement officers searched the hotel room and found three bags, each containing approximately one pound of methamphetamine, for a total weight of 1.369 kilograms.
According to today’s plea agreement, Ellingboe had planned to return to the hotel room later in the day to pay his co-defendant $8,000 for the methamphetamine that he had taken to sell in St. Charles. That co-defendant also had provided an additional 1.5 pounds of methamphetamine to Ellingboe during a visit to Columbia on April 17-19, 2015, the plea agreement says.
Under federal statutes, Ellingboe and Callahan are each subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of life in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $10 million. Sentencing hearings will be scheduled after the completion of presentence investigations by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Miller. It was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Columbia, Mo., Police Department, the St. Charles, Mo., Police Department and the St. Charles County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
