Postal Service Employee Is Sentenced for Stealing a Firearm From Mailed Package

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A United States Postal Service employee was sentenced today for mail theft after stealing a firearm from a mailed package, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell ordered Demarkis Deon Houston, 31, of Charlotte, to serve 15 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release.

Jeff Krafels, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Postal Service, Office of the Inspector General (USPS-OIG) for the Mid-Atlantic Area Field Office (MAAFO), which oversees Charlotte, and Alicia Jones, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Charlotte Field Division, join U.S. Attorney King in making today’s announcement.

According to information contained in court filings, Houston worked as a mail handling equipment operator at a USPS processing and distribution center in Charlotte. Between August and September 2022, Houston unlawfully opened and destroyed mail entrusted to him and removed firearms, to include a 9mm firearm, which was intended to be delivered by a carrier of the Postal Service. On October 10, 2022, law enforcement conducted a traffic stop of Houston’s vehicle for a license plate violation. Over the course of the stop, law enforcement removed a firearm from Houston’s vehicle. Upon further investigation, law enforcement determined that the firearm recovered from Houston’s vehicle was one of the firearms reported stolen from a mailed shipment. On August 24, 2023, Houston pleaded guilty to destruction of theft of mail by a postal employee.

In making today’s announcement U.S. Attorney King thanked USPS-OIG and ATF for their investigation of the case and thanked the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department for their assistance.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Regina H. Pack of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.