Judges sentences member of major drug trafficking organization for conspiring to distribute

 ST. LOUIS – United States District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig sentenced David M. Foston to 125 months in prison today. The 49-year-old St. Louis, Missouri resident pleaded guilty, in February, to one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. 

Foston was indicted with 14 others in St. Louis, Missouri, in May 2019 for conspiring to distribute more than 25 kilograms of cocaine, 10 kilograms of heroin, and three kilograms of fentanyl. Throughout the investigation, law enforcement seized more than $2,036,981 from drug payments and profits, luxury jewelry, and vehicles.

Investigators from of the Drug Enforcement Administration St. Louis Division uncovered a cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl distribution organization transporting kilogram quantities of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl from Mexico, through Texas and Florida, to the St. Louis Metropolitan area. The higher echelon of the conspiracy served federal prison sentences for prior controlled substance violations in the Federal Correction Institution in Florence, Colorado beginning in the late 2000s. 

Throughout 2018, Foston and his co-conspirators utilized drug couriers and vehicles with concealed compartments to ship multi-kilogram amounts of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl to a residence in Spanish Lake, Missouri from Houston, Texas and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Foston and his co-conspirators unloaded the drugs at the residence and distributed them throughout the St. Louis Metropolitan area. The proceeds from the sale of those controlled substances were stored at residences in St. Louis City and County and loaded into the concealed compartments of vehicles for transportation back to Texas and Florida. 

On March 17, 2018, DEA special agents and task force officers located and seized $1,304,804.00 in drug payments from the St. Louis-based distributors in Phelps County, Missouri as a courier was traveling back to drug suppliers in Texas. On April 20, 2018, the DEA intercepted a courier in possession of 25 kilograms of cocaine destined for the St. Louis drug distributors. In July 2018, investigators seized three kilograms of fentanyl and $263,000 in drug payments from a courier’s vehicle in Oklahoma. On September 8, 2018, investigators searched the Spanish Lake residence and seized 10 kilograms of heroin.

In October 2018, the St. Louis based distributors attempted to purchase $385,000 worth of cocaine during a sting operation in a suburb of Houston. DEA investigators intercepted the courier and seized the United States currency belonging to the other St. Louis based distributors.  The currency was to be a partial payment for 25 kilograms of cocaine, which the organization intended to distribute.

This case was investigated by Drug Enforcement Administration offices in St. Louis, Houston (Texas), Fort Lauderdale (Florida), Detroit (Michigan), the United States Marshal’s Service, St. Charles County Police, St. Louis Metropolitan Police, Bridgeton Police, Phelps County Sherriff’s Department and Cleveland, Texas Police.