Suffolk County mail scheme: 3 allegedly extracted almost $5 million in checks, money orders from USPS boxes in 20 communities

Three New York City men allegedly used a glue trap and a belt to steal checks, money orders and gift cards from U.S. Postal Service mailboxes across Long Island in June, Suffolk County prosecutors said.

In a news release Tuesday, prosecutors said Nicholas Delvillar, 32, of the Bronx, Franklin Mercedes, 27, of the Bronx, and Jhosua Peralta, 24, of Queens, were charged with grand larceny in connection with the alleged scheme, which they said unfolded around June 3 at USPS collection boxes in 20 Suffolk communities from Melville to Medford. Law enforcement officers found 6,750 stolen checks totaling $4.8 million, a loaded 9 mm handgun and cash when they searched the men's homes, according to the release. 

A spokeswoman for Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney, Emily O'Neill, wrote in an email the case was "the first of its kind in terms of the alleged scale and the thousands of pieces of mail recovered."

Authorities said the defendants allegedly used a "makeshift ‘fishing' device by attaching a sticky glue trap to the end of a belt" to extract the checks, and then tried to sell many of the stolen checks on a social media platform, according to the release.   

Lawyers for the three could not be reached Tuesday. If convicted, the men all face 3½ to 7 years in prison.

O'Neill wrote that authorities began to investigate as the Postal Service and Suffolk police logged more than 670 complaints of mail theft from county residents and businesses from early 2025 through late April 2026, often from blue USPS collection boxes. 

"The defendants were identified during the course of a long term investigation which included the monitoring of social media sites, the use of undercover agents, and numerous electronic investigative tools," O'Neill wrote. 

Delvillar and Peralta pleaded not guilty before District Court Judge John B. Zollo in early June; Mercedes pleaded not guilty before District Court Judge Evan M. Zuckerman. According to the release, the judges ordered the men placed on supervised release with GPS monitoring.

Prosecutors said the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, Suffolk police, Secret Service and NYPD participated in the investigation. The case will be prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sacks of the Suffolk District Attorney’s Financial Crimes Bureau.

“To protect your mail, we urge all Suffolk County residents to use the letter slots inside your local Post Office," Tierney said in a statement.

The communities affected include locations in Melville, Huntington Station, East Northport, Commack, Smithtown, St. James, Nesconset, Hauppauge, Centereach, Holbrook, Bohemia, Farmingville, Brentwood, Medford, Patchogue, Blue Point, Bayport, Sayville, West Sayville and Oakdale.

The Postal Inspection Service did not comment.

In fiscal 2024, the last year for which an annual report was available, the service secured 1,259 convictions for mail theft. The service regularly warns Americans about check washing scams, in which checks are stolen from mailboxes. Fraudsters wash the checks in chemicals to remove the ink and change payee names and dollar amounts.

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.