HOLLAND, MICH. (WZZM) - A Holland man has been charged with running a drug conspiracy involving crystal methamphetamine mailed to Ottawa County from Arizona - part of a growing trend in which mail is used for interstate deliveries.
Keith Allen Thorpe, 43, was indicted this week on the federal methamphetamine conspiracy charge, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
He was arrested in March after postal inspectors intercepted an Express Mail package containing methamphetamine and a small amount of heroin.
Charges were initially filed by the Ottawa County Prosecutor's Office, but the case has since been turned over to federal authorities.
Thorpe came on police radar in mid-March when a package mailed from Phoenix to Holland was flagged for inspection in Grand Rapids. Investigators with the West Michigan Enforcement Team (WEMET) worked with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service on the case.
"We do see from time to time the use of various couriers to deliver illegal drugs; it's a very common way of trying to get drugs in,'' said Michigan State Police Detective Lt. Andrew Fias, commander of the West Michigan Enforcement Team.
Unlike locally-produced methamphetamine made using the so-called 'one pot' method, much of the crystal methamphetamine found in West Michigan has its origins in Mexico.
"Crystal meth use is on the rise,'' Fias said. "We're seeing an increase and about 90 percent of it is from Mexico.''
More than a dozen federal search warrants have been obtained this year for suspicious packages arriving in Grand Rapids; mostly from addresses in Arizona, Texas and California.
Drug dealers for years have used Priority Mail and Express Mail to ship narcotics and drug money. Express Mail offers overnight delivery and Priority Mail has two-day service.
Postal inspectors say the two services are popular with drug traffickers because of reliability, free Internet and telephone tracking service and a perception there's a minimal chance of being caught.
"Individuals who mail and receive controlled substances and their proceeds by mail often use a fictitious or incomplete name or address in order to hide their true identity,'' U.S. Postal Inspector Mark Rossi wrote in a July criminal complaint involving the Holland methamphetamine investigation.
Postal inspectors made contact with the woman identified as the recipient. She told authorities she no longer lived at the Holland address, was not expecting any parcels and "believed someone may be using her name to conduct some 'funny business,''' Rossi wrote.
The package contained about an ounce of crystal methamphetamine and a small amount of heroin, federal court records show.
WEMET officers replaced the methamphetamine with rock salt and Rossi, posing as a mailman, delivered the package to an address in Holland. Thorpe answered the door and accepted the package, Rossi wrote in the criminal complaint.
Thorpe was nabbed as he climbed into a car shortly after receiving the package. WEMET got a search warrant for his home and retrieved evidence consistent with drug trafficking, court records show.
Thorpe is due back in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids for a pretrial conference on Monday.
Moral of the story: USE A REAL FUCKING NAME