Jackson, Miss.  - A Houston, Texas man pleaded guilty today to conspiring with others in the Southern District of Mississippi to possess with intent to distribute approximately one pound of a substance containing methamphetamine.

According to court documents, Marcus Lamont Wallace, 33, of Houston, Texas, admitted that he knowingly agreed with others to mail approximately 11,000 tablets made with methamphetamine from Houston, TX, to an address Wallace owned in Jackson, MS, with the intent that those tablets be further distributed.  Postal video surveillance captured Wallace mailing the drugs by Priority Mail on January 4, 2022, to the Jackson address.  The U.S. Postal Inspection Service intercepted the parcel and obtained a federal search warrant to open the package after a certified narcotics canine detected the odor of narcotics coming from the parcel.  In addition to identifying the methamphetamine in a random sample of the drugs, scientists with Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection Laboratory and Science Services also developed fingerprints on the packaging around the drugs, and these prints belonged to Wallace and an unidentified person.

Wallace is scheduled to be sentenced on January 17, 2024, and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. A federal district judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

U.S. Attorney Todd W. Gee of the Southern District of Mississippi, Inspector in Charge Scott Pierce of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Southern Area Field Office, and Acting Special Agent in Charge Eric DeLaune of Homeland Security Investigations made the announcement.  

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carla J. Clark is prosecuting the case.