Three Robbers Plead Guilty to Stealing USPS Arrow Key

Three Fort Worth men pleaded guilty to robbing a U.S. letter carrier, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

Cedrick Eugene Mims, Danny Yogi Oriszul Powell, and Cameron Kemond Gist, pleaded guilty to robbery of property of the United States. Mr. Powell entered his plea on March 6, Mr. Mims entered his plea on March 13, and Ms. Gist entered his plea on April 17.

According to plea papers, the three men robbed a letter carrier, identified in court documents as C.S., in Fort Worth on Oct. 24, 2023.

Mr. Mimms admitted he pointed a 39mm pistol at the carrier and demanded "the key" - a reference to the carrier's "Arrow Key," a master key used by the U.S. Postal Service to gather mail deposited in blue collection boxes that is prized by mail thieves.

The men admitted that they also purloined a postal scanner and the keys to the letter carrier's official vehicle. Mr. Powell drove the getaway car and Mr. Gist provided the firearms, plea papers indicate.

Mr. Mims and Mr. Gist now face up to 25 years in federal prison due to the dangerous weapon enhancement; Mr. Powell faces up to 10 years.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Fort Worth Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Montes is prosecuting the case.

This case is the result of Project Safe Delivery (PSD), a joint U.S. Postal Service and U.S. Postal Inspection Service initiative aimed at countering postal crime and safeguarding postal employees. Announced in May 2023, in direct response to a rise in threats and attacks on letter carriers and mail theft incidents, PSD seeks to protect Postal employees and the mailstream, prevent incidents through education and awareness, and enforce the laws that protect our nation's mail stream. Since the launch of PSD, postal inspectors, working with law enforcement partners, have arrested more than 213 individuals for postal-related robberies. In the first six months of the fiscal year, the number of arrests for postal-related robberies rose 72% versus the same period the previous year, while the number of postal-related robberies dropped 21%. Meanwhile, the number of mail theft complaints received during that period decreased 35%, suggesting the PSD approach is achieving the intended result.