USPS arrested Steve Bannon. Yes, the post office can arrest people.

The US Postal Service is here to do justice against former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

It may not have come as a shock that Bannon, often described as a con artist, was allegedly caught in a scheme to defraud donors as part of a crowdfunding campaign that promised to build a border wall. Mexican-American.

But it came as a surprise to some that the USPS, the same agency President Donald Trump tried to cripple before an expected wave of mail-in ballots in November, proceeded to arrest him on a $ 28 million mega-yacht. called Lady May offshore. from Connecticut Thursday morning:

These aren’t your day-to-day letter carriers – they’re part of an elite police unit known as the US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), which has been fighting crime since the enactment of the Postal Fraud Act in 1872. There are approximately 1,200. Postal inspectors carry arms, make arrests, execute federal search warrants and serve subpoenas. All officers are required to complete a 16-week training program that covers firearms, fitness, and defensive tactics. In 2019, they made 5,759 arrests and 4,995 postal offense convictions, according to the USPS.

“They say, ‘Oh, you look a lot like the FBI.’ And I like to tell them, ‘No, the FBI is a lot like us,’ says a USPIS agent in a recruiting video:

They often team up with other federal, state and local authorities to investigate mail theft, fraud, identity theft, narcotics cases, opioid investigations, lottery scams, and more. Investigations sometimes extend over years.

In Bannon’s case, they collaborated with Audrey Strauss, the acting American lawyer for the Southern District of New York. It is not immediately clear why the USPIS got involved as none of the charges against Bannon – conspiracy to commit money laundering and electronic fraud – appear to be directly related to the mail, and the USPIS has declined to comment on his investigation into Bannon, which is ongoing.

New York City Postal Inspectors Inspector Philip Bartlett said in a statement that Bannon’s indictment should send a message to other fraudsters: “No one is above the law . ”

“The defendants are said to have engaged in fraud by distorting the true use of the donated funds,” Bartlett said. “As alleged, they not only lied to donors, but they conspired to cover up their embezzlement by creating fake invoices and accounts to launder donations and cover up their crimes, showing no respect for the law or the truth. “

Obviously, the USPS doesn’t just sell stamps – it works to eradicate crime as well.

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