Vernon County Sheriffs Office :Investigation leads to stolen guns, cash, over ½ pound of crystal meth

Mark Bogart

Stolen Handguns

Stolen Rifles

Crystal Meth and Money

More Money and Meth

Thousands of dollars, explosives, stolen property, over a half pound of crystal meth, and more than 40 guns were seized during a large scale investigation involving two search warrants this month. According to a press release from the Vernon County Sheriff’s Office, approximately 255 grams of what is believed to be crystal meth was seized during one of the search warrants making this one of the largest seizures of crystal meth in Vernon County.

According to Vernon County Sheriff Jason Mosher, his office began investigating a drug operation along with agents from the CNET Drug Task Force that lead to tips of stolen firearms and other stolen property. With information collected, the Sheriff’s Office applied for a search warrant in the south part of the county just off of 43 highway that lead to the recovery of stolen firearms, drugs and high grade explosives. Continuing the investigation, the Sheriff’s Office was able to obtain a second search warrant that lead to more stolen firearms and other property, as well as the crystal meth and more than $8,000 in cash. Sheriff Mosher said the type of explosives found were of a commercial grade and his office was able to secure the explosives and turn them over to the Missouri State Highway patrol bomb squad. “Members of our office had just received training this summer on identifying certain types of explosives and was able to quickly determine how to safely remove them from the building and turn them over to the Highway Patrol” said Mosher.

According to the press release, at least a half dozen of the fire arms had already been identified as stolen from Vernon County, and St. Clair County, and investigators are still working to identify the others, “many of the reports we take of stolen firearms do not have serial numbers for the guns when reported so it takes time to track them down, but we are working with the ATF to try and identify when they were sold and then start tracking them down from there” said Mosher.

Names from the first search warrant have not been released due to the continuing investigation, but a warrant was issued for Mark Bogart 33, of Nevada, involving the second search warrant charging him with a class A Felony for drug trafficking, a class C Felony for receiving stolen property, and a class C Felony for maintain a public nuisance. Bogart is currently being held in the Vernon County Jail on a $100,000 cash only bond. 

 

Sheriff Mosher said the amount of drugs taken off the streets will make a large impact on the drug sales in Vernon County, “this was a tremendous amount of crystal meth to have in a county this size and will definitely make a dent in the amount of meth being distributed throughout our county” Mosher said. The Sheriff also said returning stolen property to its owners is one of the most gratifying parts of the job.