A Toledo, OH, mail carrier lost his job and is now serving a two-year prison sentence for helping move illegal narcotics through the mail.
At the outset of this case, postal inspectors began tracking packages containing drugs as they moved through the mailstream. The packages were addressed to locations along one specific carrier’s route, but they never reached their intended recipients.
The Postal Inspection Service investigates drugs being trafficked through the mail, but if there’s suspicion that a USPS employee may be involved, then special agents from the organization’s Office of Inspector General, or OIG, get involved.
Special agents and postal inspectors teamed with Drug Enforcement Administration agents to execute a search warrant on one of the suspicious packages. Concealed among children’s toys and school supplies were two pounds of cocaine and one pound of heroin laced with fentanyl.
Through surveillance, the investigators learned that an accomplice would coordinate meeting spots along the carrier’s route, where the packages were exchanged for cash. The pair tried to hide their activities by using fake identities and changing their meeting locations, but the investigators arrested them during a planned exchange.
The carrier was suspended and subsequently terminated from the Postal Service. At trial, he was sentenced to two years in prison; the accomplice received more than 10 years. Both are subject to supervised release with special conditions for mental health treatment and substance abuse support.
The OIG recently highlighted this case on its website.
If you suspect or know of narcotics trafficking involving USPS employees or contractors, report it to the OIG.
