Coffee shop owner gets prison time in marijuana conspiracy

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Columbia business owner will serve four years in federal prison for his part in an alleged marijuana sales conspiracy.

Osama Nadir Yanis, 49, was sentenced Monday in federal court after pleading guilty to drug conspiracy and possessing guns in furtherance of the conspiracy, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of Missouri.

Yanis will have to serve his sentence without parole. His son, Nader Robert Osama Yanis, 24, pleaded guilty in July and was sentenced to two years in prison without parole.

Authorities arrested both men Feb. 19, 2018, after law enforcement saw a crate with 72 pounds of marijuana being delivered to the older Yanis' home. Officers found more marijuana and eight guns in the home, the U.S. attorney's office said. Authorities also seized $72,000 from a safe inside the home and Osama Yanis turned over $20,042 of that to the federal government, according to the release.

Investigators had received a tip about the delivery a few days earlier, according to the release.

Osama Yanis was the owner of Coffee Zone in Columbia at the time of his arrest.

The case is part of a broader investigation into marijuana dealing that spans that includes people from Texas to California. Federal prosecutors earlier this month indicted 18 additional people in the case.

The case is tied to the 2017 killing of Augustus Roberts in the Old Hawthorne neighborhood of Columbia. No one has been charged in Roberts' death.