A Washington, D.C. man who stole mail from blue USPS collection boxes in Potomac and robbed postal carriers at gunpoint across the region will spend 17 years in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Lydia K. Griggsby sentenced DeAngelo Lewis, 30, on Thursday, Aug. 13, in Greenbelt after a federal jury convicted him on charges including armed robbery of postal carriers, bank fraud, theft of mail and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. The eight-day trial concluded April 24.

The Potomac connection proved central to cracking the case. On Oct. 27, 2022, investigators watched Lewis exit a white Dodge Challenger after he and two accomplices had just stolen mail from three blue USPS collection boxes in Potomac, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland. One accomplice was wearing a USPS shirt. Inside the vehicle, investigators found stolen USPS property taken during an armed carrier robbery in the same Potomac area roughly a week earlier.

Between January and October 2022, Lewis and co-conspirators robbed seven USPS mail carriers at gunpoint in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Masked suspects approached carriers while they delivered routes, sorted mail inside postal vehicles or filled neighborhood cluster mailboxes, displaying firearms and demanding master keys used to access mailboxes. During one robbery, a carrier was struck in the face despite complying with demands.

Those stolen keys unlocked a fraud pipeline. Lewis and his crew used them to pull personal and business checks from mailboxes, altered the checks and deposited them at banks, netting nearly $1 million from victims, according to The MoCo Show. Lewis also recruited people through social media to deposit stolen checks into their accounts in exchange for a cut.

A search of Lewis' Marlow Heights, Maryland, apartment turned up approximately 1,500 additional checks with a combined face value of nearly $3 million that had not yet been cashed, along with check-altering materials and five of the seven pieces of USPS property stolen during the carrier robberies.

Investigators tied Lewis to the crimes through bank surveillance footage, vehicles seen leaving robbery scenes and navigation data from his phone showing searches for post offices near robbery locations shortly before the crimes occurred.

U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes announced the sentence alongside Postal Inspector in Charge Damon E. Wood of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Prince George's County Police Chief George Nader and Montgomery County Police Chief Marc R. Yamada.

Two co-conspirators have pleaded guilty and await sentencing later this year: Marking Long, 24, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and bank fraud. Enrico Hood-Jackson, 32, of Upper Marlboro, pleaded guilty to the same charges plus armed robbery and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence.

Residents who suspect mail theft can report it to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 877-876-2455 or online at uspis.gov.