A Windham man is facing a federal drug charge after a package containing meth was mailed to him, according to federal court records.
Grant T. Wilcox , 37, pleaded not guilty to a single count in a grand jury indictment of attempted possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance during his April 9 arraignment in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, in Akron.
In an affidavit filed in court, a U.S. postal inspector reported that while looking at U.S. Postal Service databases on March 5, he noticed a package with a Nevada return address had been mailed the day before to an address on Green Road in Windham. The address was subsequently identified as Wilcox’s home, according to the affidavit.
The inspector said what initially attracted his attention was postage on the package was purchased from “a specific third-party postage provider” often used to mail illegal contraband because it accepts payment in cryptocurrency, making it more difficult for law enforcement to identify the purchaser.
The inspector wrote in the affidavit that northern Ohio postal inspectors have interdicted hundreds of packages sent with postage purchased from the provider and all contained some form of contraband, such as narcotics, proceeds from sales, or counterfeit money or fraudulent identification cards.
A search of postal records, according to the affidavit, determined that 46 similar packages were sent to Wilcox’s Green Drive address during the previous year.
The inspector said he took possession of the package when it arrived at the USPS Postal Inspection Service Akron Processing Distribution Center the following day and took it to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Cleveland Field Office.
The affidavit said the package was mailed from California and it was discovered that the Nevada return address did not exist in USPS records. It had been mailed using priority mail, a common practice for sending illegal items because of its “traceability, reliability, and timely delivery,” but with the requirement for a signature waived, also a common practice for contraband.
A Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office drug-sniffing dog detected the presence of narcotics in the package, which was found to contain 140 meth tablets after a search warrant was obtained.
Arrangements were then made to make the package available for Wilcox to pick up at the Windham Post Office on March 9. After he picked up the package around 9:10 a.m., Wilcox was seen driving around and visiting a service station – appearing to conduct “countersurveillance” as undercover investigators tracked his movement, according to the affidavit.
Wilcox then drove past his residence at least twice before returning the package to the post office, where authorities detained him.
“Wilcox was observed driving in a circuitous manner,” the postal inspector wrote in the affidavit, “which I know based on my training and experience is commonly indicative of drug traffickers trying to check the area for law enforcement presence.”
He is quoted in the affidavit as telling investigators the package “isn’t mine and I don’t recognize the sender” before he was asked any questions.
In an April 16 Facebook post, the Portage County Sheriff’s Office said personnel from its Drug and Violent Crime and Portage Aggressive Crime Enforcement units assisted Postal Service and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigators in executing a search warrant of Wilcox’s home, “recovering electronics, hard drives, and flash drives.”
Wilcox was taken to Portage County Jail, the post says.
A jury trial is currently scheduled to begin June 8. A May 27 pretrial conference is also scheduled.
Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Windham man faces federal drug charge over meth shipped via US mail
Reporting by Jeff Saunders, Ravenna Record-Courier / Record-Courier
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
