Tinley Postal Workers Guilty In Pot-Through-Mail Scheme: Feds

CHICAGO, IL — Two employees at the U.S. Postal Office in Tinley Park were convicted Thursday of helping to deliver packages of marijuana and other drugs through the mail for cash, according to federal prosecutors. The workers conducted the operation over a five-month span in 2016, the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement Tuesday.

Marvin Jones, 51, of Hazel Crest, and Angela Wansley, 44, of Harvey, were found guilty of accepting bribes to perform official postal duties, conspiring to commit obstruction of correspondence and obstruction of correspondence following a four-day trial in Chicago. The employees could face up to to 15 years in prison on the bribery conviction, and the other charges are punishable of up to five years in jail. Sentencing will be at a later date.

According to prosecutors, Jones worked at the Tinley Park post office as a letter carrier and supervisor, and Wansley was a sales associate. As part of the operation, Jones would tell another individual — Jayson Smith, 34, of Country Club Hills — about unoccupied P.O. boxes at the post office, as well as customers with mail-hold requests, prosecutors said.

Smith would have the pot or other drugs mailed, and he would pass along the tracking information to Jones or Wansley, who would intercept the packages, according to the feds. The postal workers then would pass along the packages to Smith or another person — Courtney Poindexter, 38, also of Country Club Hills — in exchange for cash, prosecutors said.

Smith and Poindexter pleaded guilty before Jones and Wansley's trial. They have yet to be sentenced.

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