READING, Pa. – A discovery by postal inspectors landed two Berks County men behind bars.
Authorities say they intercepted a package bound for an address on West Greenwich Street in Reading that was shipped from Puerto Rico.
Postal inspectors found it suspicious because the address and recipient didn’t match their records.
“That was the reason then that brought suspicion to the package, followed up by a K9 search, followed up by obtaining a search warrant to search the parcel, the discovery of the cocaine,” said Berks County District Attorney John Adams. “Then authorities put, I’ll say most of the product back into the packages and delivered it as if there was nothing wrong.”
The three kilograms of cocaine were delivered to the intended address where Pennsylvania State Police observed two men in a black BMW take the package to a storage facility and open it. Investigators arrested 21-year-old Carlos Diaz Colon and 19-year-old Leuris Santana shortly after.
“They will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Adams said. “We need to stop this flow of drugs into our community.”
DA Adams says shipping drugs through the United States Postal Service, or other parcel services, is one of the most common methods to transport drugs.
“They all have criteria set up to identify, I’ll say suspicious [packages], but I doubt that they are intercepting even a small percentage of parcels that contain controlled substances,” explained Adams.
He says over the years, his office has conducted a number of large-scale investigations into parcels that has led to the takedown of some major drug dealers.
The street value of the cocaine seized was upward of $100,000. Both are facing charges related to possession and intent to deliver.