Long Beach, Lakewood men among 33 charged with mail theft, other crimes

As part of a wide-ranging bust focused on mail-related crimes in Southern California, federal officials said Friday that they’d charged 33 people — including one from Long Beach and one from Lakewood — with committing crimes including stealing cellphones from a mail-processing center and hoarding almost 50,000 pieces of undelivered mail.

The charges span 28 separate criminal cases, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Authorities have so far issued arrest warrants for six of the 33 defendants.

Most of the suspects are U.S. Postal Service employees or contractors. About half are facing charges for mail theft or possession of stolen mail, but other cases include charges of conspiracy, embezzlement and bank fraud, according to prosecutors.

“Mail theft across Southern California has increased recently, which is significant since this type of crime tends to be a precursor to other crimes like identity theft and drug offenses,” U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker said in a prepared statement. “As a result, we are stepping up enforcement activities, including dealing aggressively with corruption within the Postal Service.”

Most of the defendants were charged in grand jury indictments on Wednesday or Thursday, according to federal authorities.

The indictments include several residents from the Long Beach area:

• Jose Hernandez, a 35-year-old Long Beach resident accused of mail theft while working for a USPS contractor

• James Freeman, a 30-year-old former mail carrier from Lakewood accused of misusing a gas card issued by the USPS

• Eugene Brown, a 43-year-old Compton man accused of making false statements about his criminal past on a USPS job application

In another case, a former local area president of the Mail Handlers Union is accused of stealing mobile phones while he worked as a mail handler at a Moreno Valley distribution center. Prosecutors alleged Joel Garcia, a 33-year-old Hemet resident, would sell or trade the phones online. At one point in December 2015, Garcia had at least 166 phones he’d stolen, prosecutors allege.

Prosecutors also highlighted their case against Sherry Naomi Watanabe, a 48-year-old mail carrier from Los Angeles. Federal authorities allege they found more than 48,000 pieces of mail at Watanabe’s home that she was supposed to have delivered to customers on her route in Placentia. She’s now facing charges of delaying the mail.

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The USPS Office of Inspector General investigated these cases.