A 49-year-old former U.S. Postal Service employee from Union County has been found guilty of accepting bribes to deliver drugs on his mail route.
Emerson Pavilus accepted bribes as a mail carrier in the Flanders neighborhood of Mount Olive from 2015 to 2020 in exchange for providing the addresses of vacant homes along his route to which packages containing drugs could be delivered, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey said Tuesday.
Pavilus of Union then intercepted these packages from the mail and personally delivered them to other addresses, prosecutors said.
In one example cited in the charging documents, a 4-pound, 7-ounce package containing suspected drugs was sent from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to an address in Flanders in October 2019.
Pavilus was convicted by a jury last week of bribery of a public official, conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to possess controlled substances with intent to distribute. He was indicted in May 2021.
According to court records, a date for sentencing has not yet been set.
Charges have been filed against Prosper Bazille, one of Pavilus’ contacts with an alleged drug trafficking organization based in Irvington.
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Jeff Goldman can be reached at [email protected].
