The owners of a Queen City smoke shop and liquor store will be spending time in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes on Wednesday sentenced Jimmy Dean Moore, 50, to three years in federal prison and his former wife, Tina Irene Moore, 45, to two years and three months.
Both sentences are without a parole possibility.
Tammy Dickinson, the U.S. attorney for Western Missouri, said the sentences were for the couple's roles in a mail fraud conspiracy related to the distribution of synthetic marijuana, commonly known as K2.
They appeared separately at the federal courthouse in Jefferson City, after pleading guilty earlier to participating in a conspiracy to commit mail fraud, Dickinson said.
Their co-conspirators included Charles Sterling Austin Jr., 63, of St. Charles - owner of Puff N Snuff LLC, with locations in Camdenton and Eldon - who pleaded guilty last week to his role in a money-laundering conspiracy related to the K2 distribution.
Austin will be sentenced after the U.S. Probation Office completes its pre-sentence investigation.
However, Dickinson reported last week, under federal statutes, Austin is subject to a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $500,000.
Dickinson said this week that the Moores and their co-conspirators devised a scheme to defraud the Food and Drug Administration, and to defraud the public, by claiming synthetic cannabinoid products were "incense" and "not for human consumption," when the substances were synthetic cannabinoids intended for human consumption as a drug.
A federal grand jury charged the Moores - who were married at the time, although they since have divorced - with purchasing synthetic marijuana from co-conspirators between April 20, 2012, and Jan. 17, 2013, and having it delivered through FedEx.
They then distributed the synthetic marijuana from their Moore-4-You Variety Store in Queen City, 15 miles north of Kirksville.
Federal investigators said the Moores' invoices, bank records and products seized by law enforcement showed the couple had purchased approximately $145,999 of synthetic cannabinoid products from their co-conspirators, which they then sold through their business for approximately $291,999.
The news release described the total sales as "multiple kilogram quantities" of synthetic cannabinoid products, and the drugs' distribution "was the dominant economic activity taking place at the business," Dickinson said in the news release.
As one example, she said, over a five-week period in July and August 2012, the Moores obtained $28,165 of synthetic drug inventory, compared with $6,568 of beer inventory and $2,324 of liquor inventory.
The case was investigated by numerous state and federal agencies, including the Cole, Camden and Morgan county sheriff's departments, the LANEG and MUSTANG drug task forces, the Highway Patrol, and the Camdenton and Columbia police departments.