A former postal employee admitted Tuesday to taking packages from a processing center in Roanoke where he worked, opening them, and in one case removing the marijuana he found inside.
Derek Jamar Hewitt, 34, pleaded guilty to stealing the contents of a package that was to be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.
Hewitt was arrested March 31, 2020, as part of a surveillance operation launched after postal officials became suspicious about the handling of parcels that passed through the Rutherford Avenue processing center.
“In the course of surveilling the package processing floor, investigators observed Mr. Hewitt take two packages off the processing line, open them, inspect the contents, but then return the re-taped packages to the processing line,” according to a written summary presented in Roanoke’s federal court.