Former manager at Fall River Post Office sentenced to prison after tracking and stealing packages

BOSTON – A former Fall River U.S. Postal employee was sentenced today in connection with stealing mail believed to contain controlled substances.

Shawn M. Herron, 47, of Whitman, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Herron was also ordered to pay forfeiture in the amount of $4,000. On Oct. 22, 2021, Herron pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute and one count of theft of mail by a postal employee.

Beginning in September 2005, Herron was employed with the Postal Service where he served as Supervisor of Customer Service at the Canton Post Office and later as Manager of Customer Services at the Fall River Post Office.

Herron tracked packages he suspected of containing narcotics and, rather than dealing with them appropriately, opened them and stole the contents. Specifically, Herron profiled priority parcels from Puerto Rico and West Coast states as well as parcels flagged by law enforcement as potentially containing illegal narcotics and then removed them from the mail stream. Herron tracked the suspected parcels through Postal Service databases and monitored their arrival at the FPO. After their arrival Herron located the parcels and brought them to his personal office space, where he stole the narcotics for distribution and sold them for personal gain. Over a period of about a year and half, Herron stole at least 15 packages from the mail. One of the stolen packages contained 271 grams of suspected cocaine, which Herron sold to an apparent drug dealer for $4,000. Herron intended to use the proceeds from the narcotics he stole for personal expenses, including renovations for his home.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Matthew M. Modafferi, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General; and Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eugenia M. Carris, Deputy Chief of Rollins’ Public Corruption & Special Prosecutions Unit, and Charles Dell-Anno, of Rollins’ Major Crimes Unit, prosecuted the case.