Yesterday, U.S. Postal Service letter carrier Hilary Gainey [CCA since 2014] was charged in Maryland U.S. District Court with bribery and participating in a pot-dealing conspiracy—the same conspiracy in which another letter carrier, Antoinette McDaniels [city carrier since 1994], was charged previously. While McDaniels allegedly delivered packages of weed mailed from California, Arizona, Florida, and elsewhere to drug dealers while working her route in the Harwood neighborhood in Baltimore, charging $100 per package, Gainey is accused of providing the same service to the same dealers while working her route in Columbia.

Both cases involve two alleged drug dealers—Sulieman “Bey Bey” Pasha and Gary “Short” Coleman—who are identified only by their initials in the charging documents, but whose full names and nicknames were included in search warrants executed late last year, described in City Paper’s prior coverage. While McDaniels is alleged to have delivered 30 packages to them and a third alleged dealer, Cyril “Indian” Boodoo, between January and November 2014, Gainey is accused of delivering 100 weed packages to Pasha and Coleman between December 2013 and January 2015.

UPDATE, Feb. 24: This afternoon, a federal indictment was unsealed, charging Pasha, Coleman, and Boodoo in a pot-dealing-and-bribery conspiracy. The indictment was first handed down Feb. 10, and remained under seal until the three were arrested, the last of which was Pasha, who was brought to court yesterday.

According to Gainey’s charging documents, Pasha and Colemen “would send text messages” to alert her “that a package would soon be sent that they wanted her to deliver directly to one or both of them.” Gainey would then “retrieve the package” and “send text messages or make phone calls” to Pasha and Coleman, “alerting them that the package had arrived at the post office and would be out for delivery along her route,” which includes areas of Columbia west of Route 29, in the 20144 ZIP code. Pasha and Coleman would then text or call Gainey, “instructing her about meeting up to make the delivery,” and when it was made, Gainey “would scan the packages as being delivered to the addressee, when in fact they were delivered to” Pasha and Coleman.

McDaniels and Gainey have both been charged via criminal informations, which usually indicate a guilty plea is in the works. McDaniels’ case remained under seal from its Jan. 28 filing until Feb. 20, and neither she nor Gainey have had their first appearances in court. – See more

In all, the court records state, the alleged conspiracy oversaw “the trafficking of several hundred pounds of marijuana in and around the Baltimore Metropolitan area.” McDaniel’s dope-delivery scandal is the second recent criminal probe involving USPS’ Waverly branch.

Last year, branch manager Richard Lewis Wright III was charged in a bribery-and-kickback scheme involving janitorial and landscaping contracts, and has since pleaded guilty. Wright’s sentencing is scheduled for March. – See more