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PROVIDENCE, R.I (WBZ NewsRadio) — A drug trafficking ring shipping cocaine from Puerto Rico to Rhode Island, may have been the reason five men from Providence allegedly kidnapped a U.S Postal Service carrier in June. According to an indictment released Thursday in U.S District Court, they took the postal worker in Pawtucket and brought him to his home at gunpoint. The defendants allegedly thought the letter carrier had stolen one of their packages of cocaine. But the worker did not have the drugs or his house key, and the men released him unharmed.
Five men were charged with allegedly participating in drug trafficking conspiracy, and four were charged with kidnapping.
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According to court documents, during the investigation into the abduction, Postal Investigators learned that several packages had been shipped from fake people and addresses in Puerto Rico to real addresses in Pawtucket, Cranston, Johnston, and Providence, Rhode Island.
Court-authorized search and interception secured more than three kilograms of cocaine via a Rhode Island State Police K9 unit.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S Attorneys Christine D. Lowell and Sandra R. Herbert.
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