CAPE MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO DRUG CHARGES AFTER POLICE FIND COCAINE

A 37-year-old Cape Girardeau man pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to conspiring to sell cocaine, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Kenneth Wayne Pryor, along with Austin Alan Bain, 19, of Los Angeles, face a maximum punishment of 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine for one felony count of conspiracy, and 20 years and a $1 million fine for possession of more than five grams of cocaine, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Hahn.

Pyror had driven to Memphis, Tenn., in July to meet Bain and Willie Smith, who had traveled with Bain from Los Angeles by bus. Smith had arranged for a quantity of cocaine to be brought from Los Angeles to Cape Girardeau by a third person who traveled with them, Hahn said.

Pyror, Bain and Smith were observed by police leaving a residence at 133 S. Benton St. Based on information provided by an informant that the three possessed cocaine, the officer stopped their car at the intersection of Jefferson and Pacific streets.

The officer found a clear plastic baggie containing what proved to be 32.5 grams of cocaine in plain view on the right front passenger seat, where Bain had been sitting.

After the officer arrested the three men, he searched the vehicle and found a box of baking soda, a box of sandwich bags and a digital scale inside a blue plastic bag. The baking soda was to be used to convert the powder cocaine into crack cocaine, Hahn said. The scale and sandwich bags were for weighing and packaging the crack cocaine, he said.

The cocaine was intended to be sold in the Cape Girardeau area, Hahn said.

The men will be sentenced on April 10.