DES MOINES, Iowa — An Adel man and a Winterset man have pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in a 14-person, multi-state drug case, announced U.S. Attorney Marc Krickbaum.
Kasey Lee Cassady, 22, of Adel pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Peter Gerald Blaha, 42, of Winterset pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Both are scheduled for sentencing in July.
On May 7, 2020, the 12th defendant was sentenced in the federal prosecution of 14 defendants charged with drug trafficking, firearms offenses, money laundering and lying to a federal grand jury stemming from the investigation of a multi-state, armed drug trafficking and money laundering ring.
The drug trafficking organization was led by Robert William Lampe and Mason Leroy Snyder, who operated their drug distribution business out of various residences in the Des Moines area. Lampe and Snyder obtained marijuana primarily from Tan Fong Vang, who resided in the Minneapolis area.
Vang and his parents, Charley Vang and Sindy Xiong, used multiple residences in Minneapolis to store and distribute thousands of pounds of marijuana. Lampe, Snyder and their co-conspirators traveled to Minnesota to acquire the marijuana and distributed it in the Des Moines area.
Lampe and Snyder also organized the acquisition of cocaine from various sources, including Cassady and Blaha, before selling the cocaine to customers in the Des Moines area. Alyssa Jean Karnowski, Brett Allan Corrigan Jr., Robert Joseph Lampe Jr., Austin Eugene Brommel and David Joseph Daughenbaugh all assisted Lampe and Snyder with their operation, including purchasing and/or distributing marijuana and/or cocaine from and on behalf of Lampe and Snyder.
Lampe and Snyder used their drug proceeds to purchase various items, including vehicles and a residence located in Des Moines. The residence was purchased from Douglas Scott Bruns, who knowingly accepted $100,000 in drug proceeds for a down payment on the residence.
Bruns’ son, Ian Michael Bruns, later provided false testimony to a federal grand jury regarding the circumstances surrounding that transaction. Both men were charged and pleaded guilty to offenses involving this conduct.
The investigation culminated in federal search warrants being executed at five locations in the Des Moines metro area on Aug. 9, 2018. On Nov. 20, 2018, an additional search warrant was executed at one of Vang’s residences in Minnesota. During the execution of that warrant, Vang and his parents were discovered with boxes containing approximately 294 pounds of marijuana as well as a loaded handgun.
In total, the organization was responsible for the distribution of over 100 kilograms of marijuana and over 500 grams of cocaine in the Southern District of Iowa between April 2018 and January 2019. The organization also possessed multiple firearms throughout its operation.
Over $140,000 in drug proceeds were seized as a result of the investigation, as well as multiple vehicles and two residences. All the defendants pleaded guilty or were found guilty after a jury trial, and twelve of the 14 defendants have been sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger.
• Tan Fong Vang, 29, of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of 170 months.
• Mason Leroy Snyder, 20, of Waukee sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of 120 months.
• Robert William Lampe, 23, of Des Moines sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of 73 months.
• Robert Joseph Lampe Jr., 56, of Des Moines sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of 70 months.
• Brett Allan Corrigan Jr., 25, of Des Moines sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of 60 months.
• Austin Eugene Brommel, 22, of Pleasant Hill sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of 60 months.
• Alyssa Jean Karnowski, 21, of Des Moines sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of 46 months.
• David Joseph Daughenbaugh, 21, of Des Moines sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of 37 months.
• Charley Vang, 50, of Hayfork, California, sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of 30 months.
• Sindy Xiong, 47, of Coon Rapids, Minnesota, sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of 21 months.
• Douglas Scott Bruns, 51, of Ankeny sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of 15 months.
• Ian Michael Bruns, 22, of Des Moines sentenced to a four-year term of probation.
• Kasey Lee Cassady, 22, of Adel pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 16, 2020.
• Peter Gerald Blaha, 42, of Winterset pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 10, 2020.
This matter was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement and the Saint Paul Police Department. The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of Iowa.
