Mail carrier kidnapped after group thinks cocaine was stolen from NY package, feds say
Three New York residents face life in prison for their roles in the kidnapping of a U.S. postal worker who they accused of stealing a package containing drugs, federal prosecutors say.
Mark Rogers, 38; Joseph Way, 36; and Rogers’ girlfriend, Tashara Levans, 37, all of Rochester, pleaded guilty to kidnapping in the November 2019 incident, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York announced in a Dec. 15 news release.
The postal worker, identified in court documents as “Victim A,” was delivering mail when Rogers and Way confronted her about a package of cocaine they were expecting to be delivered that day, according to a news release.
The pair forced the mail carrier into Rogers’ Infiniti SUV, where Levans was waiting, court documents state.
For two hours, Levans drove Rogers and Way around Rochester in the SUV as they held the mail carrier against her will. They then threatened to shoot and kill Victim A unless she handed over the “stolen” drugs, or paid them $70,000 for what the drugs were worth.
Way allegedly “took a photograph of Victim A’s cell phone displaying Victim A’s children and threatened to harm Victim A and her family” if she told police what happened, court documents state. The postal worker was eventually released unharmed.
The trio is scheduled to be sentenced April 11, 2022.
This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 2:11 PM with the headline "Mail carrier kidnapped after group thinks cocaine was stolen from NY package, feds say."