Update: A Department of Justice official said the 200 arrests cited by Barr Wednesday included some dating back to December 2019, and included both state and FBI arrests in joint operations. That story is posted here.
Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday that 200 arrests had been made in a new federal operation launched in Kansas City.
“Just to give you an idea of what’s possible, the FBI went in very strong into Kansas City and within two weeks we’ve had 200 arrests,” Barr said of the operation, which is sending more than 200 federal agents into the metro area.
But the announcement came just two days after the first charge was announced in connection with Operation Legend, billed as a federal law enforcement effort against violent crime. And officials in Kansas City said they had no knowledge of any number arrests close to Barr’s figure.
The only charges announced in the operation so far were against Monty W. Ray, 20, of Kansas City, who was arrested Friday by an Independence officer and an agent with the U.S. Marshals Service. Ray was charged Monday in federal court with being an unlawful drug user in possession of firearms, according to a criminal complaint.
When asked just before 11 a.m. Tuesday if there had been any additional arrests since Monty Ray, Don Ledford, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas City, said “No, not that I’m aware of.”
Ledford said he was “checking” on Barr’s comments when contacted Wednesday. He also said he’d been made aware of additional arrest since Tuesday morning, but couldn’t yet provide a specific number.
The Kansas City Police Department directed all questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The FBI directed questions to the Department of Justice, whose spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said Wednesday that he was not aware of 200 arrests. He said that, as far as he knew, the U.S. Attorney’s Office had only announced a single arrest.
He said that his understanding is the additional federal officers have only been in Kansas City for four days, which would mean they would have had to make an average of 50 arrests a day for Barr’s claim to be accurate.
“I think it’s fair to say that I will be following up with the United States attorney about the representations made by his bosses,” Lucas said.
The operation, named for 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was killed when sleeping in an apartment in Kansas City, is aimed at quelling a “surge of violent crime,” Barr said earlier this month. This year is on track to be the city’s deadliest in history, with 110 homicides reported as of Wednesday, according to data kept by The Star, which includes police shootings.
Since LeGend was killed June 29, about 30 people have been criminally charged in the Western District of Missouri, court records indicate.
Their alleged crimes have ranged from wire fraud and drug conspiracy to failing to register as a sex offender and receiving child pornography. The federal judicial district encompasses 66 counties, including Jackson, Clay and Cass counties.
As Operation Legend rolls out, 225 federal agents from the FBI, DEA, Marshals Service and ATF are expected to join 400 agents already working and living in the metro area, Tim Garrison, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said at a July 15 news conference.
Garrison said Monday that any federal agents making arrests as part of the new operation to reduce violent crime locally will be clearly identifiable and will not bear any resemblance to the operation playing out in Portland, Oregon.
“These agents won’t be patrolling the streets,” he said. “They won’t replace or usurp the authority of local officers.”
The Star’s Luke Nozicka contributed reporting.
This story was originally published July 22, 2020 5:03 PM.
