Kansas City, Missouri: Operation Sign Off Clears 75 Warrants and Charges 21 Defendants

Federal and local officers spent the past week arresting people wanted for serious crimes across the Kansas City and St. Joseph areas of Missouri, and the U.S. Department of Justice announced the results on Friday, Nov. 6. The sweep, called Operation Sign Off, cleared 75 warrants involving 21 defendants and opened federal prosecutions against people accused of serious offenses, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Missouri said.

Investigators also seized drugs and guns during the work. The Justice Department breakdown lists 1,009 grams of fentanyl, 798 grams of methamphetamine, 23 firearms, 2.5 ounces of phencyclidine, known as PCP, and 62 miscellaneous pills seized during the investigations tied to the operation.

U.S. Attorney R. Matthew Price said the operation showed what happens when federal and local teams work with a shared mission, and that the joint work sends a message that officials are using their full power to protect communities and bring dangerous offenders to justice. The department said the teams combined existing resources to find and arrest people wanted for violent offenses, move investigations forward, and strengthen cases for prosecution.

ATF Special Agent in Charge Bernard Hansen, of the Kansas City Field Division, said his agency focused on people who are barred from having guns and who use firearms to drive violence, and applied crime gun intelligence and on-site ballistic support during the sweep. Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Puett said the partners are better together, and U.S. Marshal Jim C. Arnott, for the Western District of Missouri, praised the use of Marshals Service resources to take dangerous offenders off the street.

The Justice Department thanked four partner agencies by name: the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the United States Marshals Service, the Buchanan County Sheriff's Office, and the St. Joseph Police Department. Hansen's statement also credited the St. Joseph police street crime unit, the Buchanan County Drug Strike Force, the Northwest Missouri Drug Task Force, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The operation's name pays tribute to Walter Cronkite, the CBS news anchor born in St. Joseph who closed his broadcasts with the words, "And that's the way it is." The department said the name reflects a commitment to ending criminal activity and holding those responsible to account. The sweep is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide Justice Department initiative.

The charges in any charging document are accusations only, and not evidence of guilt, the department said. Evidence for the charges must be presented to a trial jury, which decides guilt or innocence.