Toledo postal worker arrested, accused of stealing marijuana from mail packages

9/20/2018

Editor’s note: This article has been changed to reflect which federal agencies took part in the investigation. 

A Toledo mail carrier faces federal theft of mail charges based on accusations he stole from packages containing marijuana to then sell it.

Ramon Johnson was taken into custody Wednesday by federal agents, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Agents with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began investigating Mr. Johnson after they suspected he was rifling through packages he believed to contain narcotics and then stealing the contents, court documents show.

At the time of the offense, Mr. Johnson was assigned to the Toledo Main Post Office on South St. Clair Street, court records show. On Wednesday, agents conducted an undercover delivery operation by mailing a package containing 10 pounds of marijuana and an electronic monitoring device to a fake address in Toledo. The package had a fake label indicating it had been sent from Sacramento, Calif.

Agents observed Mr. Johnson place the package and another package into the back of his postal vehicle, records show. Minutes later, he entered the vehicle from the back and closed the door, at which point agents were notified that the package had been opened.

Agents arrested Mr. Johnson, according to court records, and he admitted to officials that he had opened the package because it smelled like marijuana and had come from California. He also admitted to opening the second package he had taken.

Ultimately, he told agents that he had been opening suspected drug packages and stealing marijuana to later sell since September, 2017, records show. He would sell the drugs, he said, at $1,800 per pound.

At the time of his arrest, he had $5,000 in cash, records show. He consented to a search of his personal vehicle, and law enforcement found and seized a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield firearm located on the passenger seat of the vehicle.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 24.

Contact Kate Snyder at ksnyder@theblade.com, 419-724-6282, or on Twitter @KL_Snyder.