Postal manager stole drugs from mail, let coworker snort cocaine off his desk, feds say
A former U.S. Post Office manager accused of dealing drugs he stole from packages has pleaded guilty to federal charges and faces prison time — as well as a $5 million fine, according to prosecutors.
The man took advantage of his management position at the Greece, New York, post office to take packages containing drugs, including marijuana, out of the mail stream between May 2018 and May 2022, prosecutors said.
While in the privacy of his office, he emptied the packages of the drugs, then placed the parcels back into the mail stream and brought the substances to his home in Rochester, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York.
He’s accused of distributing marijuana and cocaine from the mail throughout Rochester with the help of his former girlfriend, who was also a U.S. Postal Service employee, the U.S. attorney’s office said in May 2022, when prosecutors announced both of their arrests.
The man’s office was no longer private by March 2022, when a court order allowed investigators to legally install two hidden cameras inside, according to an affidavit.
The cameras captured him taking substances out of packages from the USPS mail stream and “supplying” his co-workers with the “suspected narcotics,” the affidavit states.
Inside his office, the man let one of his USPS co-workers snort cocaine off of his office desk — three separate times — between March and April 2022, according to prosecutors. He’s accused of giving the co-worker cocaine.
The affidavit suggests the hidden cameras captured one of these occasions on March 1, 2022, when the co-worker was seen crushing a white substance into powder, forming it into a line and leaning over to snort it inside the man’s office.
The former postal manager, 54, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance, the U.S. attorney’s office announced in an April 23 news release.
The man’s defense attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on April 24.
The USPS Office of Inspector General, which was involved in investigating the case, declined a request for comment.
During the execution of a search warrant at the man’s home in May 2022, investigators found marijuana, an estimated 700 grams of cocaine, about 40 guns and more than 19,000 rounds of ammo, according to prosecutors.
After he left the post office that day, he was arrested, prosecutors said.
The man faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and up to 40 years in prison, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. His sentencing hearing is set for Aug. 13.
The man’s former girlfriend was separately charged with “conspiring and attempting to possess with intent to distribute marijuana and 500 grams or more of cocaine,” prosecutors said in an earlier news release.
Her plea agreement hearing is set for May 7, court records show. Her attorneys didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.
Greece is about a 10-mile drive northwest from Rochester.
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