Sweep Targets Express Mail Delivery of Drugs : Narcotics: Eight people are arrested after federal and local authorities monitor shipments at LAX destined for Eastern cities.

The Express Mail package sent from South Pasadena contained what looked like 100 sugar cookies. But sugar wasn’t what quickly drew the attention of the police dog.

The “cookies,” in fact, were patties of crack cocaine--$300,000 worth.

So when they were delivered to an apartment in Omaha, the “mailman” had a surprise for the woman who signed for them--a warrant.

“We were shocked when we found out how much we had, the largest seizure of crack cocaine in the history of Nebraska,” said Omaha-based Postal Inspector Jerald Vajgert, who had posed as the mail carrier.

On Thursday, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Washington announced the results of its recent monthlong “Operation Cleansweep,” a nationwide effort to ferret out drugs sent by mail from 25 cities, often destined for the American heartland.

Seized in the May campaign--paralleling a similar effort late last year--were 72 pounds of marijuana, 11 pounds of cocaine and PCP valued at $2 million, and 130 bottles of steroids.

Much of the effort has been concentrated in Los Angeles, where the city’s notorious street gangs often use the mail to deliver crack and other drugs, federal agents said. “They ship to their operators in--pick any medium-size city in the U.S.,” said Paul M. Griffo, a spokesman for Postal Inspection Service.

As part of Operation Cleansweep, a task force of postal inspectors and Los Angeles police, assisted by drug-sniffing dogs, spent 24 days in May monitoring Express Mail parcels sent through Los Angeles International Airport.

That group discovered 17 drug shipments, including powder cocaine and marijuana going to St. Louis, powder cocaine destined for Swansea, Ill., rock and powder cocaine headed for St. Rose, La., and marijuana being shipped to Warren, Mich.

The Los Angeles investigation resulted in seizure of about 11 pounds each of cocaine and marijuana, steroids (going to Dolton, Ill.), tar heroin and even prescription cough syrup (destined for Dallas).

Eight people were arrested on charges of sending or receiving the drugs, including a civilian Air Force employee in Warner Robbins, Ga., who had a top secret clearance and who was discovered with $50,000 in cash and stolen military equipment.

“The final statistics strongly supported previous suspicions that many narcotics traffickers are using overnight delivery services to distribute illicit drugs to Eastern cities,” a Los Angeles police spokesman said.

“A lot of our work was at LAX . . . because that’s where all the mail goes and is sorted and put on the proper flight,” said Postal Inspector Dan Obritsch.

While declining to describe their techniques, postal inspectors said they generally concentrate on overnight Express Mail. They sort through it for suspicious envelopes and packages--”something that looks like a shoe box, you gotta be suspicious,” Obritsch said--which are passed under the nose of a drug-detecting dog.

If the dog grows agitated--”alerts on the package”--inspectors get a search warrant allowing them to open it.

Suspected drugs found inside are immediately sent to a laboratory for analysis. If the tests are positive, the package is resealed and delivered on schedule.

The Omaha package, which was the size of a shoe box, listed a fictitious return address in South Pasadena, inspectors said.

The woman it was delivered to became “bordering on hysterical,” Vajgert said, when he disclosed his true identity. She was not charged, however--Alan Randle, 25, who showed up at the apartment to pick up the cocaine cookies, is being held on suspicion of “possession with intent to distribute,” Omaha police said.

One arrest has been made in South Pasadena as well, according to Obritsch, the Los Angeles-based inspector.

In another Operation Cleansweep seizure, drugs were discovered in a package of raisins. Several years ago, a gang shipment of drugs from Los Angeles to York, Pa., was concealed in Christmas presents of model cars and trucks. “Get well Grandma,” the card said.

Chief Postal Inspector Charles R. Clauson said half the drugs seized were probably intended for personal use with the rest apparently destined for dealers.

While the quantities of drugs are small when contrasted with other narcotics investigations, the mail seizures are often only the start of a case, Obritsch said.

“The interesting thing from our standpoint is the forfeiture,” he said, “being able to seize anything involved in the trafficking. . . . If they come down to the post office with a car, then they drive off--then we got a vehicle.”

In the last 18 months, the inspectors have confiscated 132 vehicles, 13 homes and one farm. Overall in 1991, 1,046 people have been arrested nationwide for shipping drugs through the mails--2 1/2 times as many as in all of 1988, authorities said.

Inspectors couldn’t help plugging the Postal Service.

“Let’s say you’re a drug trafficker in Los Angeles and need to get a shipment to a distributor in Memphis,” authorities hypothesized in a news release. “How would you get your drugs to their destination cheaply and efficiently?

“At $13.95 for two pounds, the U.S. Postal Service’s Express Mail Overnight Service is probably the least expensive and quickest method to ship your drugs, right?”

But at a news conference in Washington, Clauson added a cautionary note for would-be customers: “While the mail might look attractive as a drug distribution vehicle, don’t be misled by our low price and guaranteed delivery.”

Hawkins reported from Washington and Lieberman from Los Angeles.

In the Mail Nationwide arrests for shipment of drugs through the mail have been increasing.

Year Number 1988 425 1989 880 1990 1,286 First half of 1991 1,046

Source: U.S. Postal Inspection Service