Investigative Case Highlights

Imagine hitting the road carrying a large, heavy suitcase, a golden retriever, and two regular-sized laptops. That’s about the weight in drugs Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) found a USPS employee was smuggling into Southern California from Mexico: 33 kg of cocaine, 26 kg of fentanyl pills, and 3 kg of heroin — a combined 136 lb.!

You might be surprised to know that many of our contract fraud investigations start when our special agents detect discrepancies in the Postal Service’s massive facilities portfolio. That’s how this case began: our special agents found a contractor’s invoices just didn’t add up.

There’s a reason fentanyl is a Schedule II controlled substance: a tiny amount — even a small dose the size of a pencil tip — can be lethal. Imagine how many fatalities 3.3 kg of fentanyl can claim: the tip of a pencil times the weight of a half gallon of milk. That’s how much fentanyl our special agents and their law enforcement partners initially found a street gang in Orlando, FL, was moving through the U.S. Mail.

The U.S. Postal Service moves 44 percent of the world’s mail and despite its massive size, it must rely on thousands of contracts worth billions of dollars each year. The sheer volume and huge dollar value of these contracts also make USPS susceptible to fraud. This makes the oversight work of our Contract Fraud Investigations Division a high priority in our mission to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse within the Postal Service.

In came a trifecta of complaints: a group of companies, a local postmaster, and a U.S. representative all contacted our Hotline to report expensive collectable coins were being stolen from the mail and sold to jewelers and pawn shops in the greater Houston area. With a single coin’s value near $12,000, the total theft to victims surpassed $400,000.