KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Brian Smith, the owner of Rockstar Burgers, is among 18 defendants indicted Sept. 30 in a federal drug-trafficking conspiracy.
The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri announced that a federal grand jury had indicted Smith and 17 other people in a 25-count indictment related to a $1.7 million drug-trafficking ring, which allegedly conspired to distribute more than 150 kilograms of methamphetamine and 10 kilograms of heroin.
The indictment was unsealed Wednesday, according to U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison’s office and replaces an indictment handed down in December 2019, adding eight new defendants and new charges.
Smith, 42, was among those who appeared Wednesday in federal court.
The other individuals indicted in the case are Kamel Elburki, 32, Ashley Clevenger, 38, Rachel Simpson, 37, Daniel Ruiz, 36, Matthew Fabulae, 31, and Ian Cook, 27, all of Kansas City, Missouri; Cory Jobe, 28, of Independence; Mary Craft, 42, of Gladstone; Tayler Jones, 26, of Liberty; Ashley Fries, 23, of Riverside; Justin Ramirez, 24, of Bolivar; James Schroeder, 47, of Marshfield; Michael Lambert, 43, of Hartville; Seth Turbyfill, 31, of Chillicothe; Amy Nieman, 49, of Moorseville; and Richard Saettone II, 39, and Megan Jackson, 27, addresses unknown.
Smith was arrested in December 2019 after he was charged with second-degree domestic assault and armed criminal action in Platte County for allegedly hitting a woman with whom he’d had a relationship in the head with a gun.
He was twice denied bond in connection with the domestic assault case shortly after his arrest, but eventually was released April 12 after a judge agreed to modify his bond conditions.
Smith is scheduled for trial in the case in February 2021.
Several days after his initial arrest for domestic violence, Kansas City, Missouri, police executed a search warrant at Rockstar Burgers, the restaurant Smith owned in the West Bottoms, after a woman reported she’d been raped there in April.
New charges were added in July in Jackson County Circuit Court after Smith allegedly recorded a woman engaged in bestiality, some of which he also engaged in, according to court records.
He was charged with animal abuse and sex with an animal. Smith was mailed a summons in August and is scheduled for an arraignment Oct. 22.
Authorities seized several computers last December when executing a search warrant at Rockstar Burgers as part of the sexual assault investigation.
All of the defendants in the federal drug-trafficking case, including Smith, are charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics and money laundering.
Twelve of the defendants are charged with possession of 500 grams or more of meth and one kilogram or more of heroin.
Smith and 11 other defendants are charged with illegal possession of a firearm in connection with drug-trafficking.
Nine of the defendants are charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Three of the defendants are charged with unlawfully using controlled substances in possession of firearms and ammunition.
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