Former Postal Worker Smuggled Heroin For Dealers

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A Baltimore man and former U.S. Postal Service worker was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in prison for federal charges related to his role as a courier in a drug smuggling scheme.

Under a plea deal reached with the Justice Department, Linwood Nelson, Jr., 32, acknowledged that while working as a federal letter carrier assigned to a Woodstock route, he knowingly delivered packages containing drugs, including heroin, between July and September of 2014, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Here's how it worked: Nelson gave drug dealers an address along his route and they mailed parcels to that location under bogus names. Then they would tell him, via phone and text messages, what the packages looked like. He would then weed out the ones containing drugs, scan them as "delivered" using the computer tracking system, and bring them to their destinations.

For each drug delivery, he made about $500.

Nelson's role in the scheme came to an end on Sept. 11, 2014, when authorities intercepted him while he was carrying a package filled with two kilograms of heroin.  He was arrested and charged with, and later pleaded guilty to, taking part in a conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute heroin.

His prison term will be followed by three years of supervised release.