An Ohio supervisor with the United States Postal Service admitted to raking in thousands while trafficking illegal drugs.
Kerry Beech Jr., a 31-year-old USPS supervisor in Cincinnati, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Thursday for his role in a 2020 scheme that saw him intercept 28 packages containing fentanyl and methamphetamine and deliver the packages himself.According to Kenneth Parker, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Beech was paid $500 per package from the person it was delivered to.
An operation by federal agents in July 2020 found Beech in possession of four sealed packages containing illegal drugs, with officers also finding him in possession of $4,500 cash and a loaded pistol in his car.
OHIO LAW ENFORCEMENT SEIZE ENOUGH FENTANYL TO KILL 190,000 PEOPLE
USPS Trucks sit at a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) facility in Elkridge, Maryland, U.S., on Sunday, Aug. 16, 2020. The House may cut short its recess to hold hearings on the crisis at the USPS amid a nationwide uproar over funding cuts and delays to mail that threaten to impede voting in November’s election.
(Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Beech was eventually charged with mail theft in September, which can land a USPS employee a five-year prison sentence.
The fentanyl bust comes as Ohio has grappled with a growing opioid crisis in recent years. According to the most recent CDC data, the state checked in with the fourth-highest rate of drug overdoses in 2020, trailing only West Virginia, Kentucky, and Delaware.
A USPS (United States Postal Service) mail truck leaves for a delivery in Fullerton, Califnoria, on July 18, 2020.
(iStock)
The state has also recorded an increase in overdose deaths every year since 2018, the CDC data shows.
Fentanyl has been a driver of the surge in overdose deaths nationwide since 2020, with authorities warning the drug is extremely dangerous and can be deadly in small doses.
Fentanyl seized in Arizona.
(Arizona Department of Public Safety)
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“We lost nearly 108,000 people” just last year to opioid poisoning, he said — with two-thirds of those deaths attributed to fentanyl-like substances,” William Bennett, who served as the U.S. “drug czar” under the administration of former President George H.W. Bush told Fox News Digital last month.
