How Postal Employees Helped a Chicago Crime Syndicate Infiltrate the Mail

This was no ordinary mail theft investigation.

Complaints were flooding the lines: Postal Service customers around Chicago were calling their banks and credit card issuers saying checks and cards were being stolen from the mail and fraudulently used. Those institutions and clients were reporting the thefts directly to our Hotline and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which investigates mail theft by non-postal employees. Some contacted other federal law enforcement and local police departments saying the thefts went wider: business and U.S. Treasury checks, military mail, debit cards, gift cards, cash, and personally identifiable information (PII) were being hijacked at a rampant pace.

As complaints came to a head, the criminal patterns seemed chaotic. Victims were geographically dispersed around The Windy City — individuals, businesses, sometimes entire communities. The stolen items were being used to buy high-end tech gear and luxury goods or were cashed or sold online. Eying dozens of suspects, investigators already recorded losses in the millions.

Zoom In: How It Started

Members of a prominent street gang in the Chicago area began targeting young, vulnerable female postal workers in 2017. The first victim-turned-conspirator was approached while shopping at a grocery store. Wearing the iconic blue USPS uniform made her an easy target when a young man struck up a conversation and asked if she wanted to make money on the side. 

The job was simple, he said, and the risks were low. Just steal a handful of mail she was entrusted to deliver and turn it over to him or his associates. Weighing her financial hardships as a single mom, she accepted and the two allegedly began an intimate relationship soon after.

At the post office, she rifled through the mail looking for specific envelopes and sneaked them out in her uniform or belongings. She handed off the stolen mail while on her delivery route or after work. At first, he rewarded her with large sums of money and expensive gifts. But that soon changed — the gifts stopped and the money dwindled.

Criminals often use sexual relationships to earn their victim’s trust and entrap them. When the employee began asking for more money, he turned violent, sometimes making death threats if she stopped stealing. Being cornered didn’t lessen her culpability, but it made it harder to leave and come clean with authorities. And she wasn’t alone.

Zoom Out: A Massive and Complex Conspiracy

The head of the criminal organization and his accomplices routinely targeted uniformed postal employees online and in person with promises of quick, easy cash. Once recruited, the gang would push them to sign up other employees — again, most of them young, vulnerable women with no criminal records. 

Evidence captured the collusive mail carriers and handlers pocketing handfuls of mail at a time at post offices and in their delivery vehicles. The handlers at mail processing plants were even more brazen, sometimes walking out with garbage bags full of stolen mail. The carriers were stealing both from their routes and from other carriers who weren’t involved in the scheme, placing undue suspicion on them.

The gang took pains to keep the employees from knowing one another to avoid raising suspicion. However, all the employees had connections to the gang members — especially the ringleader. Troves of incriminating evidence were left on the popular social media apps through which the two parties communicated.

While postal employees kept a running supply, the gang staged smoke and mirrors by bringing unsuspecting bystanders into the scheme. They targeted vulnerable people on the street — drug addicts or those experiencing homelessness — paying them small sums of money to cash checks or buy goods for them with stolen cards. The gang also recruited random bank customers to cash checks for a small price. It was never more than one transaction per customer and this, coupled with customers’ established credibility with their bank, helped keep this part of the operation under the radar.

The gang further exploited victims by using the PII from their mailings and PII bought on an unregulated online marketplace to open new credit cards in the victims’ names. The collusive employees helped intercept and steal mail from financial institutions sent to verify the identity of the supposed requestors. Many victims our special agents interviewed were distraught at the egregiousness of the crimes, which stole from them multiple times and deeply compromised their identities.

The ringleader and his group thought they could evade law enforcement with these tactics, but investigators were way ahead of them. Our special agents interviewed dozens of employees to unravel the covert connections. Our agents and postal inspectors also called on their partners at Homeland Security Investigations, Secret Service, Naperville Police Department, and Illinois’ Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center to augment the reconnaissance, data analytics, and other resources they were using. They also partnered with some of the nation’s largest banks and financial institutions, which provided key information and services to the investigation.

By the time the case reached critical mass, investigators had uncovered the largest mail theft conspiracy involving the highest number of collusive postal employees. They identified 13 external suspects (including the ringleader) and 35 employees who had exploited over 200 zip codes and over 10,300 victims, of which about 90 percent were in the Chicago area. But the actual number of victims was higher, as the gang had criminal cells in at least four other states: Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas. Our special agents were already investigating collusive postal employees there.

The losses from this conspiracy clocked in at over $6 million with an additional $46.6 million in intended losses — meaning, had they maxed out every card, the damages could have been almost eight times higher. And get this: even after the conspirators were charged, they continued their criminal activity online while trying to strike plea deals with the government. Spoiler: it backfired.

The collusive employees either resigned or were promptly terminated from the Postal Service. Federal prosecutors initially approved charges against 24 employees and 10 external individuals; ultimately, 27 defendants were convicted and sentenced in federal court to a combined total of nearly 36 years’ imprisonment. Internally, the longest sentence given to a postal employee was over two years and, externally, the ringleader received the longest sentence of nine years. The defendants were also ordered to pay their victims back over a combined $6 million.

Help stop these crimes from happening to you and others: if you suspect or know of mail theft involving Postal Service employees or contractors, please report it to our Hotline.

For further reading:

Department of Justice (via uspsoig.gov), Ringleader of Mail Theft Conspiracy Sentenced to 9 Years for Using Credit Cards Stolen From the Mail, Seven Former Postal Service Employees Charged in Federal Probe of Credit Cards Stolen From the Mail, Former Postal Service Employees Among Eleven Individuals Charged in Conspiracy to Steal Credit Cards From the Mail

When trust in the Postal Service was stolen, the USPS OIG and its law enforcement partners took it back. This wasn’t just the largest criminal organization ever identified involving collusive postal employees — we made it the last time these criminals used the Postal Service to betray the American public.

– Tammy L. Hull
Inspector General,
U.S. Postal Service