Former postal worker pleads guilty to taking bribes to deliver marijuana
By Kent Faulk | kfaulk@al.com The Birmingham News
Tuscaloosa, AL /storypackage /#article_inset Article
A Tuscaloosa postal carrier pleaded guilty Monday to accepting bribes to deliver packages of marijuana, federal authorities announced today.
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Jocelin Latrice Betts, 28, of Tuscaloosa, entered her guilty plea Monday before U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler to one count each of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and being a public official who accepted a bribe to deliver the mail, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, FBI Special Agent in Charge Roger C. Stanton and U.S. Postal Inspection Service Inspector in Charge Adrian Gonzalez.
No sentencing date has been set.
According to her plea agreement with the government, Betts provided two Northport addresses in June and July to an FBI informant for use in delivering packages containing marijuana. Betts retrieved the packages from those addresses and accepted at least $300 for delivering two of them to the informant or a drug dealer who had introduced the source to Betts.
Betts was arrested as part of a narcotics investigation that involved another post office worker and two alleged drug dealers accused of participating in the distribution of more than 500 pounds of marijuana.
Betts faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $1 million fine on the marijuana distribution charge and a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the bribery of a public official charge, according to the statement.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, FBI and the Tuscaloosa Police Department investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney John B. Felton is prosecuting.