Convict sentenced for mail-in cocaine scam
Published 11:03 am Thursday, May 31, 2012
A Vicksburg man was sentenced Tuesday to three years of probation for his role in a scheme to ship cocaine through the mail, while charges were dropped against his co-defendant.
Richard Cosey, 49, 102 Quinola Lane, who accepted a shipment of cocaine from an undercover postal inspector, pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance and was sentenced by Circuit Judge M. James Chaney to three years’ probation, a fine of $2,000 and $622.50 in costs.
Cosey and Leroy Hall, 68, 413 Pleasant Valley Drive, were indicted in January for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
During his plea hearing, Cosey took full responsibility for the cocaine, and charges against Hall were dropped, according to court records.
Cosey was arrested Oct. 31 by Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agents after he accepted a package containing approximately 2.2 pounds of cocaine from an undercover postal inspector.
The package, addressed to James Jackson, 413 Pleasant Valley Drive, was intercepted Oct. 24 by a postal inspector who discovered it contained cocaine, according to court records. The package had been shipped from Plano, Texas.
An undercover inspector attempted to deliver the package at 11 a.m. Oct. 28, but a man at the house said James Jackson did not live there. Later that afternoon, a woman with a Texas phone number called the inspector and said the package needed to be delivered as soon as possible. The inspector arranged delivery for Oct. 31, and the woman assured him James Jackson would be at the Pleasant Valley Drive home.
Cosey was outside the home talking to Hall when the undercover inspector arrived. Cosey told the inspector he was James Jackson and accepted the package at 10:30 a.m before fleeing into a wooded area when MBN agents arrived.
Hall told investigators he knew Cosey’s address but not his name, and Hall was arrested after agents found crack cocaine paraphernalia in his home.
Cosey was arrested at his Quinola Lane home about 30 minutes later and told investigators that he was paid $50 to accept the package and deliver it to another man who was not identified in court records. Cosey had made at least one other package delivery, according to court records.