A Brooklyn mailman was caught making special deliveries — kilos of cocaine — on the clock, authorities said.
Letter carrier Zarwardy Lewis, 35, was charged with drug distribution in Brooklyn Federal Court on Friday after the US Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General said he delivered at least three packages of cocaine to addresses across Brooklyn in December.
The probe began after authorities searched a package originating from the Caribbean destined for Bedford-Stuyvesant and found that it contained about two kilograms of cocaine, Special Agent Kyle Knieste said in court papers
The package, which has a street value of about $60,000 according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, was one of three parcels investigators tracked that came from the same sender, all with delivery addresses around Bed-Stuy, and Lewis delivered the other two packages while working his route.
Every time Lewis dropped off one of the parcels, he received $500 electronic payments from a woman named Evangeline Nery, according to court papers.
Investigators began conducting surveillance on Lewis and witnessed him making another alleged cocaine drop from his mail truck at Atlantic Terminal mall in Fort Greene on Jan. 26, Knieste wrote.
There, investigators watched Nery, 45, of the Bronx, give Lewis an empty plastic bag before going into the mall, Knieste testified.
Moments later, Nery emerged from the shopping center and retrieved the bag from Lewis’ truck although this time the bag seemed to have a large brick-like object in it, according to court papers.
Investigators later found a kilogram of cocaine in the bag and searched Nery’s cellphone, where they found messages with pictures, postal receipts, and packages like the ones Lewis had been delivering, Knieste wrote.
Lewis was arrested and allegedly admitted to agents that he delivered the cocaine to Nery for $500 per package.
Both Nery and Lewis have been charged with cocaine distribution in connection with the scheme.
Lewis, who had been hired by USPS in 2013, was released the day after his arrest on a $100,000 bond and Nery was released on a $50,000 bond, according to court records.
Lewis’s attorney, Matthew Galluzo, declined to comment on the case.
Nery could not be reached for comment.
