A U.S. Postal Service (USPS) worker admitted to embezzling mail packages that contained fentanyl and methamphetamine for thousands of dollars.
Kerry Beech Jr., 31, a USPS supervisor in Cincinnati from 2013 to 2021, pleaded guilty in a federal court Thursday, Fox 19 reported.
According to federal prosecutor Kenneth Parker, Beech was paid to intercept at least 28 packages within the mail system and would hand-deliver them to another person. He would be paid $500 per package.
In 2020, federal authorities caught Beech trafficking four packages that contained fentanyl and methamphetamines while also finding $4,500 in cash and a loaded handgun in his vehicle.
Beech was charged with mail theft in September and faces up to five years in prison.
The Ohio worker’s guilty plea comes as the state and the nation grapple with the deadly opioid drug crisis.
There were 5,204 deaths caused by opioid drugs in Ohio in 2020, putting the state’s death rate fourth overall in the nation behind West Virginia, Kentucky, and Delaware, according to the CDC.
In 2021, over 107,000 Americans died from a drug overdose, with 80,000 of those deaths due to opioids such as fentanyl.
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