Men developed ‘complex’ scheme to rob Virginia mail carriers at gunpoint, feds say
Five men were recently sentenced in an intricate conspiracy to rob mail carriers in Virginia at gunpoint, federal prosecutors said.
Dashawn Evans-McCloud, Samir As-Sad Hurd, Chanz Lamarion Pough, Manray A.C. Perry and Ricky Damion Christopher Jones Jr., all pleaded guilty in September in connection with a string of robberies, according to a March 26 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
“Ricky Jones, Jr. was a good kid from a good family who made a bad mistake, and he has taken responsibility,” Diane Toscano, Jones Jr.’s attorney told McClatchy News in a March 28 email.
Attorneys for the other men did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment.
From April through July 2023, the five men sentenced — along with three others previously sentenced — all played individual roles in a bigger plan to rob mail carriers of their arrow keys, at times putting a gun to their heads to force them to hand over the key , according to court documents.
“Arrow keys are master keys used by USPS mail carriers to access blue collection boxes, outdoor parcel lockers, and apartment mailbox panels and are highly valued by criminals,” per the news release.
The conspiracy was “multi-level,” prosecutors said. First, the men would get an arrow key from a mail carrier, then they would steal mail from collection boxes, according to court records, which said the group stole thousands of mail pieces.
Next, the men “harvested” the mail, looking for valuables, including “financial, medical, or personally identifiable information” and checks which they would deposit into accounts they created, according to court documents.
The members of the conspiracy were connected to a minimum of four robberies in different Virginia cities, including Norfolk, Hampton and James City County, according to court records.
“It was not merely the type of incidents or number of parties involved that rendered it complex, but rather the overall structure of the conspiracy and the nature of each defendant’s role in it, compounded by the lengths to which the defendants went to evade detection by law enforcement,” federal prosecutors said in court documents.
The men were each sentenced as follows, according to federal officials:
Hurd was sentenced Jan. 28 to 14 years and three months in prison.
Pough was sentenced Feb. 13 to two years and six months in prison.
Perry was sentenced March 4 to five years and three months in prison.
Evans-McCloud was sentenced March 19 to 15 years in prison.
Jones was sentenced March 26 to 19 years in prison.
Mail theft on the rise
During the early COVID-19 pandemic, there was a sharp increase in mail theft complaints, according to a September 2023 report issued by the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General.
From March 2020 through February 2021, there were 299,020 mail theft complaints – a 161% increase “compared to the same period in the previous year,” the report said.
Suspected mail theft can be reported to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service online or by calling 1-877-876-2455.
This story was originally published March 28, 2025 at 5:42 PM with the headline "Men developed ‘complex’ scheme to rob Virginia mail carriers at gunpoint, feds say."
