Sierra Club Receives $11k In Mail, Botched Drug Deal Suspected

This story comes courtesy of California Watch

By Sarah Terry-Cobo

A Sierra Club mailroom worker combing through the arriving mail at the group's San Francisco headquarters in April opened a package addressed to someone who had never worked for the environmental advocacy group.

In it, the worker found $11,000 in cash, and the Sierra Club called the San Francisco police immediately.

A large, anonymous donation? Apparently not.

Something about the package prompted authorities to launch an investigation, believing the money was part of a drug transaction gone awry. The sender of the package remains a mystery. There was no return address.

The matter came to light earlier this month when a legal notice was posted in the June 10 edition of the Wall Street Journal. It noted that postal inspectors had seized $11,000 from the Sierra Club on April 7 under a federal forfeiture statute of the Controlled Substances Act.

The Sierra Club has been fully cooperating, according to spokeswoman Kristina Johnson. After the mailroom attendant discovered the cash, the group contacted the San Francisco Police Department.

The published legal notice is a requirement of asset forfeiture, so that anyone with a legitimate claim to the money may come forward to claim it, said postal inspector Hilary Rickher. It is not uncommon for people to use the postal service to send proceeds from criminal activity, she said in a telephone interview.

Rickher could not provide further details of the case, citing the open investigation, but she said, "I believe the investigation into prohibited mailings indicates part of a larger criminal conspiracy," related to the Controlled Substances Act.

It's unclear why the Sierra Club mailroom attendant opened a parcel that wasn't addressed to the Sierra Club or one of its employees. It also remains a mystery exactly why the postal inspection service has determined the cash to be drug money. Those details are part of the ongoing case, Rickher said.

Comments

[Scott Zwartz]

12:23 PM on 06/25/2010

From the facts which the story gives about the conclusion that the money is drug money, one has to conclude that it is not drug money and the cops are stealing $11,000.00. Anyone who finds money gets to keep the money after reasonable efforts to find the owner such as publicizing the find.

The burden of proof is on the cops to prove the money is drug related, but as we see with almost all government, corruption reigns supreme from Officer Perez and the LA's Corruption which resulted in a Consent decree to MMS's allowing the BP oil disaster, power tends to bring corruption and absolute power tends to bring absolute corruption.

Since the sender did not anticipate his package being intercepted, the packaging probably has substantial evidence of its origins. If a forensic investigation does not establish that it is drug money, then it belongs to the cops.

While the law says that people who find money need to make reasonable attempts to find the owner, turning the cash over the the cops is not always "reasonable."

[dbrett480]

05:05 PM on 06/25/2010

I don't see how the story shows that the police are improperly seizing money and I'm sure the US Postal Inspection Service has a valid reason for seizing the money, even if it hasn't been published (very common when dealing with ongoing drug investigations). It's not normal for large amounts of cash to be sent through the mail and it was the Sierra Club mailroom worker who contacted police because he found it suspicious.

[Darnassus]

10:36 AM on 06/25/2010

Nothing suspicious about his opening the package. He works in a mailroom, and after a while, you don't bother to look at mailing addresses. Do you always check to see if the mail in your mailbox is for you before you open it? Good job turning it in.

[funkyou]

04:19 AM on 06/25/2010

The mail clerk did what??!! That just doesn't seem right.
Sounds fishy to me.

[Maezeppa]

08:24 AM on 06/25/2010

Sounds fishy that he was honest and reported the discovery?

[funkyou]

03:59 PM on 06/25/2010

No, it just seemed strange he opened someone's mail that wasn't addressed to them or the Sierra Club. But Tyler's post below seems to clear that up!

[Tyler-Durden]

11:41 AM on 06/25/2010

it's probably safe to assume that opening parcels sent to the organization is part of his job.

i receive all incoming shipments for this agency (that i'm at right now, not Sierra), and i open anything not addressed specifically to a current employee. i also have an established protocol to follow for suspicious packages.

what i'd like to know is why the cops suspect it's drug money rather than an anonymous donation to the org.

i AM impressed that the employee didn't just "lose" that package. " what? no i thought it was just packing material!" haha!

[funkyou]

04:03 PM on 06/25/2010

Thanks for that info. My friend used to work at the Post Office, which I'm sure is run different than a mail room for a specific company, but he would have had to turn that undeliverable package in to a supervisor. You couldn't just go around opening letters.
Truth is stranger than fiction, so who knows. But it might be a way for the worker to "laundry" some $$$. Send a package, open it, no one claims it? you get to keep it??
Like I said who knows??? But thanks.

[quoveritas]

01:54 AM on 06/25/2010

Stinks like rethuglican chicanery to me.

[1logicalthinker]

01:44 AM on 06/25/2010

They meant to send it to the bank for laundering :)

[The DChild]

01:43 AM on 06/25/2010

Meg Whitman was sending her toilet paper to her Locker at the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club will be hurt from this when Meg is in office. You wont like it when Meg is angry.

[Bibulus]

01:40 AM on 06/25/2010

The definition of character is the mail room employee who turned over the $11k cash fictitious recipient and no-return address. Kudos!

[charon]

12:48 AM on 06/25/2010

After the smear job they did on ACORN, I would suspect an attempt to smear the Sierra Club. Similar M.O. Reeks of old Tricky Dicky. And $11,000 might be fair amount to a wannabee Fox Channel hero, but it's chump change in the drug world.

[Maezeppa]

08:25 AM on 06/25/2010

It reminds me of when GW Bush's secret "debate practice tapes" were mailed to the Gore campaign. They didn't bite, either.

[SteveSFM]

10:06 AM on 06/25/2010

I thought the same thing.

[jcd8822]

10:43 PM on 06/24/2010

If they cannot find the original sender I will be happy to accept the package on their behalf.

[1logicalthinker]

01:43 AM on 06/25/2010

You beat me to it :) Mark me down as an alternate, if you fail to show up :)

[jcd8822]

10:45 PM on 06/25/2010

You've got it. I am one to always have a back up. LOL

[CaroleK1970]

09:47 PM on 06/24/2010

it was a payment from Meg Whitman to secure someones vote at the Sierra Club. Based on the ebay method, she is going to keep throwing money on things in hopes to possess them

[jcd8822]

10:44 PM on 06/24/2010

ROFL

[AmandaBC]

12:20 AM on 06/25/2010

"it was a payment from Meg Whitman to secure someones vote at the Sierra Club"

_FAT CHANCE_, LOL...

[vondruke]

09:37 PM on 06/24/2010

San Francisco??

Must be drugs.

Lousy hippies

[GoneLongGone]

09:46 PM on 06/24/2010

Try reading the article again.

[vondruke]

10:01 PM on 06/24/2010

Maybe you could give the article another go before your next munchies run

[jbeach]

11:15 AM on 06/25/2010

Yeah! Hippies and their pot. They should be cracked out on prescription drugs, like responsible members of society.

[GoneLongGone]

02:12 PM on 06/25/2010

They don't even know if the money had anything to do with drugs.

[CaptD]

09:27 PM on 06/24/2010

Follow the Money!

[LiberalTreeHugger]

09:12 PM on 06/24/2010

Something smells like Big Government..

[AmandaBC]

09:06 PM on 06/24/2010

If the parcel wasn't addressed to the Sierra Club, why was it in their mail room to begin with?
Anyhow, the criminals are not going to claim it, I hope the Sierra Club gets to keep the cash. They do good work (yes, I'm a member of their Canadian affiliate... :) )

[LouisaMay]

12:15 AM on 06/25/2010

i'll alert the media.

[AmandaBC]

12:21 AM on 06/25/2010

Good, spread the voice, the more people support the Sierra Club, the more people wake up about BP's _fascism...

[jbeach]

11:18 AM on 06/25/2010

I think it had the Sierra Club's physical address, just not their name.

[VerizonCells]

08:56 PM on 06/24/2010

I guess the Sierra Club does not need the money. Mail room guys open mail all the time, this one blew it.

Sierra Club office is in the same building that has some aids programs also, I bet it was a donation.

Drugs, ya right just a way the feds can keep it.

[jbeach]

11:16 AM on 06/25/2010

Only if the Feds can prove it, I'm pretty sure.

From the circumstances listed, it does seem likelier that this is drug money than that it's anything else. Sounds like whoever sent it got the wrong address, OR the wrong person delivered it or opened it....

[Tyler-Durden]

11:51 AM on 06/25/2010

"hey, this money smells like cocaine!"

"wait, let me smell that again........yeah, we're gonna need to hold on to this."