How the feds say they caught one of St. Louis’ most prolific cocaine distributors (2024)

ST. LOUIS — A six-year federal investigation has brought down one of the most prolific cocaine distributors in the region.

Gregory Dixson Jr., 53, who grew up in St. Louis, led an organization that distributed hundreds of pounds of cocaine worth millions of dollars over at least six years, federal officials described in court documents and interviews over the past few days. He coordinated deals with suppliers in Texas and hired people to transport the co*ke, plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash at a time.

It took authorities years to catch him. They set up wiretaps, GPS tracking, surveillance and an array of informants. They followed the supply chain from St. Louis to Mexico and tracked money as it was deposited into banks and invested in real estate. They seized cocaine, fentanyl, bank accounts, expensive vehicles and houses.

“We hit the full gamut in this investigation,” Drug Enforcement Administration Assistant Special Agent in Charge Colin Dickey, who supervises investigations in St. Louis, told the Post-Dispatch this week.

Dixson Jr., in a seven-page letter to a federal judge ahead of his sentencing Wednesday, outlined how he hid his criminal activity from his family by pursuing legitimate business ventures. He hosted back-to-school drives, put together haunted houses for kids on Halloween, spent money feeding the homeless, and paid for fundraisers and events for community organizations, he said.

“In some ways I rationalized these behaviors,” he wrote, “feeling as long as I am doing for others with what I’ve gained, it’s OK.”

But he said his biggest regret was bringing his son into the drug trade with him. Dixson Jr.’s son, 33-year-old Gregory Dixson III, was also sentenced Wednesday to federal prison.

“As a father I have failed him,” Dixson Jr. wrote in the letter. “I ask the court to give him a chance.”

‘They were cautious, very careful’

Dixson Jr. grew up in St. Louis in a two-parent, middle-class household, he wrote in the letter to the judge. He had to drop out of school when he became a father at 17 and had two more children by the time he was 22.

He got divorced in 1998 and was working to support his family. He had some brushes with the law and went to federal prison in the 2000s for marijuana trafficking. He tried to get back on track, he said, but never gave up his illicit contacts.

In September 2015, federal agents began targeting Dixson Jr. They had stopped a vehicle from the Houston area in which more than 68 pounds of cocaine was hidden. But they let it go and tracked it to St. Louis. Here, they saw Dixson Jr. and his son drive around the car — but the two left the area without getting inside.

Over the next few years, the investigation crept along with few leads. Law enforcement agencies didn’t know a lot about Dixson Jr.’s organization.

“They were very cautious, very careful,” Dickey said.

But around 2018, things began to pick up. Witnesses came forward. Other federal agencies, including the FBI, IRS and Department of Homeland Security, worked with the DEA to look more deeply into the group.

Investigators learned that the Dixsons had found a new Texas-based supplier linked to the Sinaloa Cartel — Carlos Gonzalez, Dickey said. And over time, Dixson Jr. started buying more cocaine, court documents say.

In the early days, the Dixson organization was buying roughly 6.6 pounds of cocaine a month from Gonzalez through middlemen and a broker, Miguel Gonzalez. Miguel Gonzalez and Carlos Gonzalez are not related.

Over time, those amounts increased to 35 pounds a week in some cases.

The money and drugs were delivered by couriers who often hid cocaine or cash in concealed compartments. Some couriers hide their product in door panels, in gas tanks and around car batteries, Dickey said.

In August 2018, Miguel Gonzalez brokered a deal to sell more than 165 pounds of cocaine to Dixson Jr.

Law enforcement set up a sting and watched Gonzalez walk into a St. Louis building where Dixson Jr. had an apartment.

Gonzalez left with two large bags and drove to a hotel in St. Louis County where officers approached him and seized $634,770 in cash — a partial payment for the large cocaine shipment.

A Dodge Demon and a gold Harley

Over the next several years, authorities monitored the group through surveillance and informants.

Members of the group deposited cash in various Bank of America ATMs across the country, Dickey said. The amounts were never enough to require bank disclosures. Members also used encrypted apps like Telegram or money transfer services like Western Union to send money to Mexico.

Then, in 2021, federal authorities began to tap Dixson Jr.’s phones.

He had largely insulated himself from scrutiny by hiring others to broker deals and transport and handle the drugs, but the phone taps directly connected him to the suppliers and various deals, said Assistant U.S. Attorney James Delworth.

In July 2021, Dixson Jr. spoke with Miguel Gonzalez about buying roughly 13 pounds of cocaine. A courier, Quinton Adkins, then headed down to Texas with roughly $161,800 hidden in the rear passenger door of his car. Federal agents tracked him, but they let him keep going until he reached Texas.

There, they seized the car and the cash.

Four months later, Gonzalez, Adkins, Dixson Jr. and his son were all indicted. Dixson Jr.’s charges included conspiracy to distribute cocaine and money laundering. In all, federal authorities say he distributed at least 990 pounds of cocaine worth roughly $13.5 million throughout the region.

Dixson Jr., as part of his plea agreement, forfeited thousands of dollars as well as a home north of Dallas, a 2018 Dodge Challenger Demon worth $142,000 and a 2015 Harley Davidson Road Glide motorcycle in sparkling gold.

Seizing those assets, Dickey said, is particularly important in drug trafficking investigations.

“That’s when you really, completely dismantle an organization — when you crush their financial infrastructure,” Dickey said.

Dixson Jr. was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday. He is in bad health, his attorney said, struggling with a number of ailments including extended symptoms from COVID-19.

“My past has caught up with me, and it has cost me more than I have to pay!” he wrote in the letter to a judge.

Dixson III was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Adkins was sentenced to more than seven years, and Carlos Gonzalez died while in jail. Miguel Gonzalez pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to distribute cocaine. He is set to be sentenced in June.