Former FedEx, USPS workers indicted
The work of a “full service” U.S. attorney’s office resulted last week in federal indictments against 11 former FedEx Express employees and two former contractors for the U.S. Postal Service on federal mail theft, obstruction of correspondence and receipt of stolen mail charges.
The indictments were announced Monday by D. Michael Dunavant, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, with Dwight Jones, U.S. Postal inspector, and Tony Arvin, assistant U.S. attorney. The charges represent the efforts of the U.S. attorney’s office, the U.S. Postal Service and Fed Ex security, Dunavant said.
The indictments are for alleged actions from 2015 to 2018. The defendants are accused of targeting mail at the FedEx hub, looking for packages that might contain gift cards or money, searching those packages and smuggling the contents out of the facility.
“Let me say this, we are a full-service United States attorney’s office here. And if it is a violation of federal law which we can prove beyond a reason doubt, we will charge the highest and most readily provable offense and we will seek the maximum punishment to make sure that we are upholding the rule of law, that we are deterring future criminal behavior and that we’re holding people accountable for the ways they’ve victimized companies and in-
dividuals in this form,” Dunavant said while announcing the indictments at the Clifford Davis/Odell Horton Federal Building on North Main Street.
There were no conspiracy charges filed, but the indictments were presented to the grand jury together to give them an idea of the pattern of criminal behavior that is going on, he said.
The investigation is also a way to break the “perception” that this is an easy target if you get a job as a carrier or handler, Dunavant said.
There was no dollar amount noted in the announcement but under federal law any theft qualifies for charges, he said.
Typically, thefts of this kind represent smaller denominations of cash or gift cards that are found as people “riffle” through packages and letters and can be easily concealed and stolen, he said.
“These are not large scale amounts. And that’s quite frankly the point, is that there may be a perception that these are petty thefts. They are not. This is much more important than just a shoplifting or misdemeanor theft. This is a violation of federal law, that interrupts interstate commerce, victimizes individual citizens, compromises a corporate security structure and could in fact threaten a critical infrastructure site of the city of Memphis,” Dunavant said.
All types of packages from all over the world come and go through the hub, so security must be tight, and employees must be trustworthy, he said.
The defendants are all from Memphis and face up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Those indicted are: Braylon DeShaun Butler, 25; Posely Renard Jones, 25; Florence Lucinda Guy, 23; Shamika Shunta Coleman, 39; Jamal LaDarius Johnson, 39; Ronald Bernard Carter Jr., 32; Katrina Lasha Dunlap, 27; Yukelia Denise Brown, 31; Tekesha Brushay Henderson, 26; Craig Darnell Johnson, 26; Yolanda Matrice Barbee, 22; Jerome Timothy Pope, 26 and Cortez B. Spencer, 28.