John McCarthy
CHARLOTTE AMALIE — A veteran postal worker who coordinated marijuana shipments through a St. Thomas post office was convicted on drug conspiracy charges.
Dean Thompson, 54, of St. Thomas, was found guilty of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana and using a telephone in facilitating the commission of a felony, U.S. Attorney Delia L. Smith said.
Chief U.S. District Judge Robert A. Molloy scheduled Thompson’s sentencing for October 27, 2023.
According to court documents, from July 2016 through March 2017, Thompson, a 23-year veteran with the United States Postal Service,
Calvin Benjamin and Stephen Bernier conspired to deliver and did deliver over 100 kilograms of marijuana to St. Thomas through the United States Postal Service.
As a postal employee, Thompson had both knowledge of and access to the daily operations of the Aubrey Ottley Post Office in Sugar Estate, St. Thomas.
Thompson used his knowledge and access to facilitate several shipments of marijuana to that
postal facility. Specifically, Thompson monitored packages containing marijuana as they
arrived in St. Thomas and identified which post office boxes should be used to ship the
marijuana through the post office.
Evidence at trial further showed that Thompson alerted Benjamin when law enforcement was scheduled to inspect packages and later notified Benjamin when it was safe to pick up packages of marijuana.
Trial evidence further showed that in exchange for his involvement in the drug conspiracy, Thompson received cash and marijuana.
This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kyle Payne and Yasir Sadat.
