Postal manager stole drugs, let coworker snort cocaine, feds say. Now, he gets prison
A U.S. Post Office manager involved in drug trafficking would steal drugs from the mail and provide postal employees with cocaine at work, according to federal prosecutors, who’ve announced he is going to prison.
He abused his authority at the Greece, New York, post office for four years, between May 2018 and May 2022, and was convicted of possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, and possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance, prosecutors said.
Now, a judge has sentenced the 55-year-old Rochester man to six years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York announced in an Oct. 25 news release.
His defense attorney, James P. Vacca, didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Oct. 28.
‘Employees snorted cocaine off of (his) desk’
As a post office manager, the man took part in trafficking drugs, including cocaine and marijuana, out of his office, as well as his home, according to court documents.
In the privacy of his office, he emptied packages containing drugs, then placed the parcels back into the mail stream and brought the substances to his home in Rochester, according to prosecutors, McClatchy News previously reported.
He’s accused of dealing the drugs he brought home.
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 coworkers with the “suspected narcotics,” the affidavit states.
“He not only obtained and distributed quantities of marijuana, but obtained and distributed quantities of cocaine, including to on the-job employees in his office at the Post Office where employees snorted cocaine off of (his) desk and then went back to work,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing document.
According to prosecutors, the man let one of his coworkers snort cocaine off of his desk three times, between March and April 2022.
The affidavit suggests the hidden cameras captured one of these occasions on March 1, 2022, when the coworker was seen crushing a white substance into powder, forming it into a line and leaning over to snort it inside the man’s office.
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 ammunition, according to prosecutors.
He had 36 handguns and an AR-15 style rifle, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
That day, he was arrested while leaving his shift at the post office, according to prosecutors, who said he was also caught with marijuana inside his car that he removed from a mailed package and planned to sell.
The government had argued that the court should’ve sentenced the man to seven years and three months in prison, which would’ve been a lengthier sentence than the one issued to him, court documents show.
Vacca, on the man’s behalf, asked the court to issue a “sufficient” sentence, “but not greater than necessary,” according to a sentencing document.
“The conduct exhibited by (him) with his current charges is against his character and nature, and he has told me that he will never be involved in the criminal justice system again,” Vacca wrote, and also noted that the man pleaded guilty in the case.
This story was originally published October 28, 2024 at 11:05 AM with the headline "Postal manager stole drugs, let coworker snort cocaine, feds say. Now, he gets prison."
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