Cargo handlers who worked at JFK Airport are accused of participating in a scheme to steal mail containing foreign currency from international flights and gaining thousands of dollars in proceeds, federal officials said.
According to the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, the conspiracy spanned over four years and resulted in a loss of more than $250,000.
Former cargo handlers Frantz Janvier, 32, of Brooklyn, Machel Scarlett, 37, of Queens, and Tracey Mellisa Sandy, 45, of Queens, allegedly stole mail from international flights arriving at and departing from JFK’s Terminal 1, including Japan Airlines flights carrying mail from Japan. They targeted mail believed to contain foreign currency, including Japanese Yen, and then exchanged the foreign money at currency exchange businesses at the airport and at other financial institutions.
Frantz Janvier, Greguy Janvier, 34, of Brooklyn, Jamila Malika Allen, 24, of Brooklyn, and Melbourne Black, 50, of Queens, are also charged with laundering the proceeds of their theft.
“These defendants allegedly took advantage of the access given to them by their employer when they devised a scheme to steal U.S. mail from the cargo of airplanes at JFK and then lie to launder the proceeds for their personal gain,” Phillip R. Bartlett, postal inspector in charge of the United States Postal Inspection Service’s New York Field Office said in a statement Tuesday. “Let there be no mistake, postal inspectors will use every resource to bring criminals to justice for crimes violating the sanctity of the U.S. Postal Service.”
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