What can brown do for you? Transport thousands of pounds of weed for your drug-trafficking organization -- that is, if Chandler resident Robert Gene White was your UPS driver.
White, 45, was convicted in federal court of several charges for helping drug traffickers get their product across the country through the UPS delivery system.
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According to information provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office, federal authorities found out in "Operation Green Parcels" that a drug-trafficking organization was getting various drugs into the country from Mexico via backpackers.
The substances, mostly marijuana, would be repackaged and dropped off to White, who strategically introduced the packages to the UPS mail stream.
White helped out on the receiving end, too, as the buyers would send money for the shipments -- between $20,000 and $30,000 -- to real addresses, so they would end up on White's delivery route, but to fake suite numbers, so he would know it was the cash.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, White shipped between 200 and 300 pounds of marijuana per week, while taking in as much as $50 per pound for his services -- thus making as much as $15,000 in one week.
Another man, 61-year-old Tempe resident Nadunt Chibeast, was convicted in the case for helping the drug traffickers. His role mostly was money laundering, as the dirty money would filter through his bank accounts before he physically handed it over to the traffickers, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The two men face a maximum sentence of life in prison for drug-trafficking convictions alone, which doesn't include their money-laundering convictions. The men are due to be sentenced on July 8.
