OIG – 6/24/26 – A quiet conversation at a mall food court in eastern Puerto Rico sealed the deal — plan and method in place, profits were just around the corner. All the Postal Service employee had to do was look out for packages containing “blanca” and then hand them over to his associate for payment.
Except the two men weren’t alone. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was listening.
The FBI brought this complaint to our Office of Investigations. Our special agents stationed in Puerto Rico went to work with their partners to set up a sting operation at the post office where the employee worked and had access to an endless supply of incoming mail.
During the operation, investigators saw the retail clerk remove a Priority Mail package from his station and set it apart. He waited some time for the pick-up to arrive, poking his head three times through a service door to make sure he hadn’t missed the man. When the person finally arrived, he handed the package to him. To avoid suspicion, he met up with him at an outside location days later to receive payment.
Investigators intercepted the package and a K-9 officer signaled it likely contained narcotics. A test at the FBI lab proved the package held two bricks weighing over 2 kg. of cocaine — the white powder or “blanca” the employee knew to look for.
After more evidence of the drug trafficking scheme was collected, our special agents and their partners arrested the employee. During a subsequent interview, they learned the employee had been breaking the law well into his 10-year career at one of the nation’s most trusted government agencies. Over time, he learned to visually and physically profile parcels suspected of containing illegal narcotics. It didn’t take long before he started diverting packages from the mailstream and selling them for profit.
This February, the employee pleaded guilty to the three charges and was sentenced by a federal court to two and a half years’ imprisonment plus an additional four years of supervised release after he serves the time.
