Mail-order Meth: NJ Man Who Shipped 100 Pounds Gets 14+ Years In Fed Pen

Michael Venditti, 39, of Camden, was arrested during a controlled delivery of a package in September 2021.

It had been intercepted on its way from Calexico, a Southern California town at the Mexican border, federal authorities said.

Inspectors got a warrant to open the package after a drug-detection dog reacted to its arrival at a South Jersey postal facility, they said.

Inspectors swapped some of the meth with imitation crystals and arranged a delivery to an apartment in the Blackwood section of Gloucester Township where it had been addressed.

An unidentified companion collected the dropped-off package and brought it to Venditti's home, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Camden.

There, the contents were removed and a message in black marker was written on the package, it says.

The message:"[R]return to sender. I didn't order anything nor am I expecting anything and I don't know who the sender is,” the complaint says. “I won’t open [it's] possibly Anthrax…Lol."

Why?

It's a common ruse for people shuttling drug parcels from a delivery address who are stopped by police, inspectors said.

They'll say they'd mistakenly received an unusual package that they were returning to the post office.

Venditti was seized as he emerged from an upstairs bathroom. Inside the inspectors said they found the bogus meth bundles in a trash can and the genuine article "scattered across the bathroom floor, including at the base of the toilet.”

They also collected nearly $30,000 in cash, a money counter and various drug processing tools from the home, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.

Venditti took a deal from the government rather than risk the possible outcome of a trial. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute methamphetamine.

There's no parole in the federal prison system, so Venditti will have to serve 85% of his 171-month sentence -- a little over 12 years -- before he'll be eligible for release.

In addition to prison, Senior U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler sentenced Venditti to five years of supervised release and ordered him to forfeit $29,433.

Sellinger credited the joint efforts of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark, New Jersey State Police and his office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel A. Friedman of his Criminal Division in Camden secured the plea and sentence.

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