MONTGOMERY COUNTY — The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says they are seeing more illegal items than ever going through the mail. A new partner program with the United States Postal Service is trying to combat that.
“It’s actually such an issue that we could use ten detectives,” Sheriff Rob Streck said.
Streck told News Center 7′s Mike Campbell that the post office approached him about working together on a growing problem: hundreds of packages locally, millions nationwide, going through the post office, carrying illegal items.
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“You can order anything you want online now and that includes the using the dark web to where illegal items can be purchased,” Streck said.
Postal inspectors told Streck that they’re seeing things like marijuana edibles, which are illegal in Ohio, but legal in other states. They also said they are seeing fentanyl, guns and drugs from places like Mexico and China.
A Sheriff’s deputy and K9 were assigned to be on-call with postal inspectors. The team, Streck explained, visits several local post offices a week for investigations.
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Streck said they don’t see as many hand-to-hand drug sales done in person. Society changes, such as online retailing, are trickling over into those choosing to break the law, too.
“Obviously, criminals do the same thing, as to how can they make their life easier and make more money,” Streck said.
The new partner program has already paid off by stopping dangerous packages before delivery.
“Whether it is pounds of fentanyl or other drugs and weapons that definitely do harm to the community,” Streck said.