Two U.S. Postal Service employees used their government positions to traffic marijuana through the mail, turning a federal post office into a narcotics drop point. Marvin Jones, 51, of Hazel Crest, and Angela Wansley, 44, of Harvey, were convicted Thursday by a federal jury in Chicago after a four-day trial that exposed a five-month 2016 scheme to intercept controlled substances mailed to the Tinley Park Post Office.
Working inside the very agency tasked with safeguarding the mail, Jones—a letter carrier and supervisor—and Wansley, a sales associate, abused their access to intercept parcels sent by co-defendant Jayson Smith, 34, of Country Club Hills. Smith mailed or arranged shipments of marijuana and other controlled substances, then provided tracking data to Jones. The pair pulled the packages before delivery and handed them off to Smith or Courtney Poindexter, 38, also of Country Club Hills, in exchange for cash bribes.
Jones went further by exploiting customer data, supplying Smith with information about unoccupied P.O. boxes and mail-hold requests—intelligence that allowed Smith to ship drugs to inactive boxes with little risk of detection. The operation relied on insider knowledge and deliberate breaches of postal protocol, turning routine mail processing into a criminal delivery network.
The jury found both Jones and Wansley guilty of accepting bribes to perform official duties—a charge carrying up to 15 years in prison—as well as conspiring to commit obstruction of correspondence and actual obstruction of correspondence, each punishable by up to five years behind bars. U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman will schedule sentencing hearings at a later date.
Smith and Poindexter, who played key roles in orchestrating the shipments and exchanges, avoided trial by pleading guilty earlier. They now await sentencing before the same judge, their cooperation potentially influencing the prosecution’s case against the two postal employees. Authorities say the conspiracy collapsed due to surveillance and internal postal audits.
The convictions were announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, alongside federal inspectors from the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney William Novak and Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Flanagan, underscoring a broader crackdown on postal corruption in the region.
Related Federal Cases
- Drug Kingpin Gets 19 Years: Mexican Cartel Link Exposed · North Carolina
- Drug City Pharmacy, Mark Lichtman Pay $900K in CSA Violations · Washington
- SANCHEZ LACKLAND Indicted in Fentanyl Import Scheme · Illinois
- Chicago Felon James L. Morgan Convicted in East Texas Drug Bust · Illinois
- Claybron Appeals 7-Year Sentence in Federal Drug Case · Wisconsin
Key Facts
- State: Illinois
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking
- Source: Official Source ↗
🔒 Get the grimiest stories delivered weekly. Subscribe free →
Browse More
MORE FEDERAL CRIME NEWS
Drug TraffickingDrug TraffickingDrug TraffickingDrug Trafficking