5/18/17 A seven-month long investigation in the Whitehaven and South Memphis area has resulted in the criminal indictments of 25 people, including a postal worker, for the distribution and sale of heroin, Fentanyl, cocaine, marijuana and Oxycodone pills, Memphis Police Director Mike Rallings said Thursday.
Dubbed “Operation: Wait a Minute Mr. Postman,” the investigation by the Memphis Police Department (MPD) Organized Crime Unit revealed that a letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service helped drug dealers bring illegal drugs into Memphis using the postal service.
“I would like to give special thanks to all of the Organized Crime Unit investigators involved in this operation,” said Director Rallings. “Because of their hard work, these investigators may have saved hundreds of lives in Memphis.
The MPD investigation from August of 2016 through February of this year resulted in the recovery of 42 pounds of marijuana, three kilograms of heroin, one kilogram of Fentanyl, 1,421.9 grams of cocaine, 7,900 Oxycodone pills, 25 morphine pills, 13 handguns, 33 motor vehicles, three motorcycles and approximately $210,000 in cash.
Investigators learned that Letravius Shaw, a United States Postal carrier in Memphis, was willingly assisting O. B. Hildson, a member of the Grape Street Crips, in bringing illegal drugs into the City of Memphis, by way of the U.S. Postal system.
A Shelby County Grand Jury indicted the 25 defendants on various felony drug and conspiracy charges.
On Wednesday, May 17, 2017, Letravius Shaw was taken into custody on this indictment.
The defendants named in the indictments this week conspired to distribute and sell the illegal drugs in Memphis for their own personal gain. During the investigation OCU officers identified several locations where the defendants stored and sold the illegal drugs. Four of the defendants were also responsible for multiple thefts of (and sale of) thousands of Oxycodone pills from a local pharmaceutical company warehouse facility where they worked. Some of the thefts date back as early as 2013.
On Tuesday, May 16, 2017, the Organized Crime Unit conducted a round-up operation to arrest these individuals. During the roundup, investigators located and arrested (14) of the (25) individuals indicted. While searching for the individuals, OCU investigators recovered and additional (7.3) grams of heroin, (5.9) grams of marijuana, (.4) grams of crack cocaine, and (2) handguns. They also seized (4) vehicles and $17,473.00 cash.
There were six (6) additional individuals arrested, on unrelated charges, during this roundup. Those individuals were charged with felony and misdemeanor offenses. A total of (20) individuals were arrested during this roundup operation.
Seven (7) of the individuals involved in this conspiracy were members of the Grape Street Crips, the Travelling Vice Lords, and the Gangster Disciples criminal gangs.
“Thanks to the hard, dangerous work of these OCU officers, a significant amount of poison has been taken off the streets of our city,” said Gen. Weirich. “Far too many young lives are being lost because of fatal overdoses of illegal drugs. We are now ready to roll up our sleeves and prosecute these individuals to the fullest extent of the
How much of this stuff actually made it through the plants without being detected? A ton, it sounds like. Of course, some criminals aren’t all stupid – you can wrap up just about anything just right that won’t tip off anybody, and stuff like coffee grounds allegedly throw drug sniffing dogs off the trail, too.
This is not the only place where carriers and other postal employees are ruining the good names of those who work hard and are not law breaking thugs and hanging out with and probably affiliated with inner city gangs. Memphis is consistently one of the worst ranked cities in terms of violent crime in this country, and has a terrible gang problem, as does my home state of Arkansas’ capital Little Rock, which made the top of the list for medium sized cities (197,000 and 500,000 metro) for most violent crimes again.
My former city where I delivered mail during my long career which shall remain nameless has grown exponentially, but has become a city plagued with gang shootings, lots of drugs and human smuggling, since it attracts a lot of Latinos for work opportunities, not all of whom are on the up and up, has a lot of meth users and is generally a bad place to be, especially after dark on the wrong half of town.
As far as public workers go, nobody has quite the insight into the feel and character of a town or city like letter carriers do. We are (were in my case) ridiculously familiar with our customers, their habits, sometimes legal problems, social activities, etc. So we know that there are a lot of bad things going on out there and it can be dangerous for us, too, if not sometimes deadly.
So one thing the U.S. Postal Service does not need is drug dealers, gang members, thieves, etc. For one thing we get posted on this web page and other postal web sites very easily, so engaging in criminal activity is not just stupid, it’s embarrassing. And whom among us hasn’t figured out that with modern smart phones, everybody has a camera on us? That makes it even more stupid to commit crimes, throw packages instead of handling them properly or doing other things out on the route we’re not supposed to do. Just because management does bad things too is no excuse. The fact a piece of shit city carrier was contributing to drug addictions, gangs, smuggling weapons and other vile crap is a sad fact indeed. I hope if this person is found guilty they get a very long prison sentence. The world, despite the cliche that it takes all kinds to make it go around, can easily do without scum like this.
Now we know why, mail is getting miss delivered, to high to remember where the mail is suppose to go.
Any way, great job to get these overpaid drug dealing carriers off the street and in the slammmer.
I think they should be deported. I don’t want to pay to feed, house and give free medical to this scum.