Crime & Safety
Postal Worker Trafficked Cocaine Through USPS In Bradenton: DOJ
Two Bradenton residents were charged in a scheme to use the US Postal Service to traffic cocaine from Puerto Rico, the DOJ said.
BRADENTON, FL — Two Bradenton residents, including a postal worker, are accused of using the United States Postal Service to traffic cocaine from Puerto Rico, according to a Department of Justice news release.
Natasha Prieto, 33, and Angel Hernandez Coss, 37, are charged with conspiring to distribute and possession with the intent to distribute five or more kilograms of cocaine, the DOJ said. Each faces a mandatory minimum term of 10 years in federal prison.
Prieto, a U.S. postal carrier, provided addresses on her postal route to Coss, who arranged for the shipment of packages containing kilograms of cocaine to them, the DOJ said.
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Rather than deliver those packages, Prieto removed them from the mail stream so that the drugs could be given to Coss.
During the investigation, on Aug. 15, packages of cocaine from Puerto Rico were taken from Prieto, the DOJ said.
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