United States Attorney Richard W. Moore of the Southern District of Alabama announces that Unterria Rogers, a 33 year old resident of Mobile, Alabama, was sentenced to 60 months in prison as a result of his conviction for use of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
On March 29, 2019, Rogers entered a guilty plea pursuant to a plea agreement and admitted in open court that in 2018, he was a United States mail Carrier. During that year, the United States mail delivery databases showed a high volume of parcels suspected of containing narcotics destined to Mobile, Alabama city carrier route 009, a route assigned to Rogers. Further analysis by United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS-OIG) special agents of the U. S. Postal Service databases identified numerous suspected drug parcels scanned delivered by Rogers away from the intended delivery addresses on his route. An internal investigation by the USPS-OIG disclosed Rogers was utilizing his position as a city mail carrier to provide addresses from his assigned route to a drug source in California, so he could control, divert, and distribute drug parcels utilizing the U. S. Mail. These drug parcels contained illegal quantities of marijuana which he diverted and distributed to outside non-USPS employees in exchange for cash payments as he delivered mail along his assigned route. Further, surveillance video disclosed Rogers rifling U.S. Mail that came into is possession to be delivered to addresses along his route to locate the quantities of marijuana. Rogers is also captured on video leaving his mail truck to deliver the found quantities of marijuana to co-conspirators who met him at predetermined locations along his mail route. Rogers was captured returning to his postal truck sitting in the driver’s seat counting amounts of cash he received from the co-conspirators in exchange for the quantities of marijuana.
Rogers was interviewed. In total, Rogers admitted to opening approximately 25-30 U.S. mail parcels inside his postal truck. Further, Rogers admitted to receiving cash in exchange for marijuana parcels being sent to his route and providing them to the three people. Rogers admitted to receiving on more than one occasion $250.00 per package. In addition, Rogers provided verbal consent to a search of his residence and identified the key for entry into his residence.
Rogers stated that he acted as a middle man and provided addresses and account information to a local drug dealer who then provided the information to his California contact. During a consent search of Rogers’s residence, $3,269 in U.S. currency, a DVR for house surveillance, and a set of digital scale were seized by agents. The money was seized from the pocket of Rogers’s postal uniform. A review of Rogers’s DVR in-house video showed Rogers seated in front of a coffee table that had a handgun, a small quantity of marijuana and a set of digital scales in arms distance from him. Firearms are tools of the drug trade used by illegal drug dealers to protect themselves and their product. The firearm was brought to Rogers’s home for protection of them and their illegal drug activities by a co-conspirator, Lakeddrick Green.
The total amount of marijuana attributed to Rogers in the conspiracy was approximately 133 pounds.
Inspectors of the United States Postal Inspection Service along with special agents of the United States Postal Service/Office of the Inspector General investigated the case and brought it to the U. S. Attorney’s Office for prosecution. The prosecutor assigned to the case is Assistant United States Attorney Gina S. Vann.