It looks like The Mail Carrier Of Shame may soon have a slew of new members: Federal officials have accused 16 Atlanta-area U.S. Postal Service workers of accepting bribes in exchange for delivering cocaine along their routes.
Federal prosecutors say that 16 USPS employees working in locations around Atlanta have been charged with bribery in three separate federal indictments.
According to officials, these individuals allegedly gave special addresses to a person they believed to be a drug trafficker, who in turn could use those addresses to ship packages of cocaine. The mail carriers then intercepted those packages and delivered them to the purported drug trafficker, prosecutors allege.
Unbeknownst to them, the packages contained fake drugs and the drug trafficker wasn’t really a drug trafficker, but someone working with law enforcement as part of a sting operation.
Some employees are accused of going further and recruiting others to take part in the alleged criminal scheme, officials said, and took additional money for drug packages delivered by their recruits.
The case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office, and U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General.
“Postal employees are entrusted to perform a vital service as they travel through our communities, often visiting our homes and interacting personally with our citizens,” said U.S. Attorney John Horn. “The defendants in this case allegedly sold that trust out to someone they knew to be a drug dealer, and simply for cash in their pockets they were willing to endanger themselves and the residents on their routes and bring harmful drugs into the community.”
They all could be joining their brethren in The Mail Carrier Hall Of Shame:
July 2017: Florida mail carrier who admitted to taking bribes in exchange for delivering marijuana to a man along her route.
February 2017: A North Carolina USPS worker admitted to failing to deliver thousands of pieces of mail to residents over at least 14 years.
October 2016: USPS investigates an employee accused of dumping hundreds of pieces of mail into a ditch — while a local filmed the whole thing.
August 2016: USPS worker accused of chucking mail in a pizzeria’s trash bin.
December 2015: Authorities said a Queens mailman dumped more than 1,000 pieces of mail in the trash because he was “overwhelmed” by his heavy holiday mail load.
July 2015: A Philadelphia postal worker was accused of delivering 22,000 pieces of mail straight to his garage.
July 2015: A New York City mailman was accused of stealing more than $1 million in tax refunds in a scheme spanning years.
June 2015: Three Manhattan postal workers were in hot water after being accused of stealing from the “Operation Santa” program like a bunch of Grinches.
December 2014: USPS worker was accused of swiping as many as 2,000 pieces of mail she was supposed to deliver, out of sheer boredom in Detroit.
December 2014: Eight postal workers were accused of stealing packages filled with marijuana in Long Island.
June 2014: A 20-year veteran of the postal system was accused of stealing 20,000 pieces of mail, collecting credit cards, and stacks of DVDs.
April 2014: A mailman in western Kentucky was sentenced to six months in prison for failing to deliver 44,900 pieces of mail, because he wanted to speed up his route.
August 2012: A mail carrier in suburban Chicago pled guilty to pilfering $275,000 in donations that were heading to a charity on his route, after being charged for stealing more than 29,400 pieces of mail in the effort.
May 2012: A 15-year-veteran of the USPS was accused of stealing prescription painkillers mailed to war vets in her area, and then selling those drugs to others on her route.
October 2011: Authorities said a Missouri mail carrier stole 120 Netflix DVDs, which would be a feat now considering the decline in the DVD business. He was also accused of swiping gift cards and other mail that never reached their destination.
January 2006: Colorado police charged two postal workers for plucking Netflix DVDs from the mail, for a total of around 503 discs.
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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