United States Postal Service

Five postal carriers were charged in federal court with delivering marijuana to a drug dealer.

(John Harper/cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Five Cleveland mail carriers face federal marijuana charges for delivering marijuana to a drug dealer, according to a federal indictment unsealed Monday.

Devon Blake, 25, Rashon Blake, 25, Tamika Embry, 32, Aaron Kelly, 28, and Dartagnan Mitchell, 28, all face charges of conspiracy, accepting bribes and marijuana distribution.

The quintet worked with Kevin Collins for several months in 2015 to establish a method of delivering the drugs, according to charging documents.

The mail carriers gave Collins their work schedules and their postal routes. Collins would then have packages with marijuana shipped to addresses on their routes on the days the carriers were scheduled to work, the documents say.

The carriers delivered the packages to Collins instead of the addresses on the packages, and Collins would pay them for their services, court documents say.

The defendants are considered public officials under to federal law.

A grand jury handed up the indictment on Wednesday. It was unsealed Monday, following the arrests of Embry and Kelly. Both pleaded not guilty to Magistrate Judge William Baughman and were released on bond.

The other three defendants were issued summonses, according to U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Mike Tobin.

Collins pleaded guilty in March to drug charges. According to a plea agreement, he is cooperating with the federal government.

A spokesman for the Postal Service's Office of Inspector General said in an email Monday that Mitchell resigned in March. The other four are suspended pending hte outcome of the criminal case.

Charles Fleming, Kelly's federal public defender, declined to comment. Gretchen Holderman, Embry's appointed attorney, said she did not yet know enough about the case to comment.

It was not immediately clear whether the other defendants had attorneys.

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