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Postal inspectors arrest man on cocaine charge
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Federal postal inspectors and police used a GPS system and other tools to track a package of cocaine delivered Thursday to a Greeley Lane home from Puerto Rico.
Rafael Rosa, no age or address listed, is named in a federal complaint in the U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio charging him with trafficking in cocaine.
Rosa was arrested Thursday after an undercover postal inspector delivered a package about 12:30 p.m. Thursday that was found to have cocaine inside.
After a beacon signaled the package was opened, police arrived with a search warrant and found Rosa trying to hide the package in the ceiling, an affidavit said.
The affidavit said authorities first became aware of the package April 1 at the mail-sorting facility in Cleveland, because neither the person named in the return address in Puerto Rico nor the person named as the recipient in Youngstown matched any databases.
Postal inspectors got a search warrant and searched the package with a dog that alerted on the package. When it was opened, authorities found more than 2 pounds of cocaine inside, according to the affidavit.
They then decided to have the package delivered, with an undercover postal inspector posing as a postal employee. Members of the Mahoning County Drug Task Force also were in on the operation.
Rosa was questioned by authorities, but that questioning halted when he asked for a lawyer after he was asked if his cellphone could be examined, the affidavit said.