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Press Release

Tuscaloosa Mail Carrier Pleads Guilty to Accepting Bribes to Deliver Drug Packages

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Alabama

BIRMINGHAM – A Tuscaloosa postal carrier pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to accepting bribes to deliver packages of marijuana, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, FBI Special Agent in Charge Roger C. Stanton and U.S. Postal Inspection Service Inspector in Charge Adrian Gonzalez.

JOCELIN LATRICE BETTS, 28, of Tuscaloosa, entered her guilty plea Monday before U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler to one count each of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and being a public official who accepted a bribe to deliver the mail. No sentencing date has been set.

According to her plea agreement with the government, Betts provided two Northport addresses in June and July to an FBI informant for use in delivering packages containing marijuana. Betts retrieved the packages from those addresses and accepted at least $300 for delivering two of them to the informant or a drug dealer who had introduced the source to Betts.

Betts faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $1 million fine on the marijuana distribution charge and a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the bribery of a public official charge.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, FBI and the Tuscaloosa Police Department investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney John B. Felton is prosecuting.

 

Updated November 17, 2015