BOSTON – A U.S. Postal employee was arrested today and charged in federal court in Boston with stealing mail believed to contain controlled substances.

Shawn M. Herron, 44, of Whitman, Mass., was charged in a criminal complaint with one count of theft of mail. Herron was released on conditions following an initial appearance in federal court this afternoon.

Herron has been employed by the Postal Service since September 2005, and is currently a Manager of Customer Services at the Fall River Post Office. Prior to this position, he was the Supervisor of Customer Service at the Canton Post Office.

According to court documents, Herron tracked packages he suspected of containing narcotics and, rather than dealing with them appropriately, opened them and stole the contents for his own use. It is alleged that Herron profiled priority parcels from Puerto Rico and west coast U.S. states, and parcels flagged by law enforcement as potentially containing illegal narcotics, and then removed them from the U.S Mail stream. Herron tracked the suspected parcels through Postal Service databases and monitored their arrival at the Fall River Post Office. After their arrival at the FPO, Herron located the parcels and brought them to his personal office space, where it is alleged that he stole the narcotics and stowed them for personal use and possible distribution. These parcels often then disappeared from the mail stream altogether, and expected customers reported them as never being delivered.

The charging statute provides a sentence of up to five years in prison, at least three years of supervised release and up to a $250,000 fine. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Matt M. Modafferi, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugenia M. Carris of Lelling’s Public Corruption & Special Prosecutions Unit is prosecuting the case.