Seems some UPS employees were delivering more than Christmas packages. Eleven people including four UPS employees have been arrested in the bust of a “sophisticated” drug- and cash-smuggling scheme. According to authorities, traffickers were using the delivery service to ship counterfeit vape pens and other illicit goods from Mexico into the U.S. And apparently it’s been going on for more than a decade. It took a two-year investigation to unravel the smuggling ring.
A 20-year veteran of UPS’sTucson distribution center was the alleged ringleader, the Washington Post reported.
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According to reports, large amounts of narcotics were shipped via UPS to destinations throughout the eastern United States; bulk cash sent back to the Tucson, Arizona, area.
“Officers seized nearly 50,000 counterfeit vape pens, cash and more than a dozen vehicles in the probe, including Corvette and a Range Rover,” the New York Post reported.
Both UPS drivers and supervisors were involved and they used “sophisticated methods and techniques” to avoid detection by company officials and law enforcement to “identify and intercept parcels containing contraband,” ICE spokeswoman Yasmeen Pitts-O’Keefe told the Tucson Sentinel.
Dispatch supervisor Mario Barcelo, 49, is the accused ringleader. Barcelo allegedly used his position to make sure the drug-packed boxes were put onto certain trucks, and which bypassed security measures in order to be delivered on time to the intended destination, the Washington Post reported.
Supervisor Gary Love, 40; and drivers Michael Castro, 34; and Thomas Mendoza, 47, were the other UPS employees who were arrested.
