September 2, 2020
By: Staff Report
KANSAS CITY, Mo.- 355 arrests have been made by local and federal law enforcement officers in Operation LeGend.
Operation LeGend
Operation LeGend is a federal partnership with local law enforcement to address the increase in homicides and violent crime in Kansas City, Mo., in 2020. The operation honors the memory of four-year-old LeGend Taliferro, one of the youngest fatalities during a record-breaking year of homicides and shootings. Additional federal agents were assigned to the operation from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Among those arrested since the launch of the operation, 88 are federal defendants in the Western District of Missouri and 21 are federal defendants in Kansas (18) and Texas (3). Among the remaining 246 arrests, 33 were homicide cases and 62 were fugitives with either state or federal warrants for their arrest. The remaining 151 non-fugitive arrests were either supervised release violators or were referred for prosecution in state court.
In addition to the arrests, agents and officers have seized 122 firearms during Operation LeGend.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is not able to track cases that are referred for prosecution in state court or in other districts. Defendants have been charged in the Western District of Missouri with the following federal crimes:
– 35 defendants have been charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm;
– 26 defendants have been charged with drug trafficking;
– Five defendants have been charged with being a drug user in possession of a firearm;
– Six defendants have been charged with being in possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking;
– Five defendants have been charged with being in possession of a firearm in furtherance of violent crime;
– Two defendants have been charged with being a felon in possession of ammunition;
– Four defendants have been charged with armed robbery;
– Three defendants have been charged with carjacking; and
– Two defendants have been charged with arson.