A former customer services manager at a Massachusetts post office has pleaded guilty to drug charges linked to stealing mail, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Shawn M. Herron, a 44-year-old from Whitman, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute and one count of theft of mail by a postal employee, U.S. Attorney's Office District of Massachusetts announced.
Herron, who was indicted in August 2020, faced up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and five years in prison for stealing mail. He will be sentenced on Feb. 17, prosecutors said.
Herron started at the U.S. Postal Service in 2005, first as supervisor of customer services in Canton before serving as manager of customer services in Fall River.
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Prosecutors said he tracked packages he suspected of containing drugs and, rather than dealing with them appropriately, opened them and stole the contents. Herron profiled mail from Puerto Rico and western states, the office said, as well as packages flagged by law enforcement as potentially containing drugs.
Through USPS databases, Herron tracked the packages and awaited their arrival in Fall River, where he'd bring the packages to his personal space and steal the narcotics for distribution, prosecutors said.
