BELIZE CITY, Wed. June 6, 2018– According to a report from The Virginia Pilot, a daily newspaper based in Norfolk, Virginia, a mix-up in the destination address on a package led US authorities in Texas to seize it from a FedEx facility in Houston. When the package got in the hands of police, a Belizean man, Fiorman Erick Gillett, 48, was charged in a US District Court in Norfolk with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

Gillett pleaded guilty and will be sentenced later this year.

Gillett was reportedly living illegally in the US for years and had already caught the attention of US law enforcement before the mix-up with the FedEx package that led to his arrest.

The mix-up occurred because Gillett’s associate in Texas inadvertently switched the sending address and the shipping address, when he attempted to ship the package to Norfolk, in March.

Police found about 2 pounds of methamphetamine inside the package that was unable to be shipped from the Houston area because of the address error.

Gillett reportedly has been under Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) observation since February 2017.

The DEA, however, relied on a confidential source that had made a drug purchase from Gillett in the past, and had spoken to him several times on the phone, even meeting with him personally in Houston.

After the two pounds of methamphetamine was seized from the FedEx facility, Gillett is said to have negotiated with the DEA informant to send another pound, via the U.S. Postal Service. The informant provided him with a fake name and a fake address in Norfolk for the delivery.

The package was intercepted by U.S. Postal Inspectors, but Gillett was given the impression by the DEA informant that everything had gone as planned, and he was paid $4,500 that was deposited in a Wells Fargo account that was opened by another person.

The informant spoke to Gillett again, by phone on April 12, and he arranged to send one kilogram of heroin and several additional pounds of crystal methamphetamine. Again, another fake name and address was provided to him by the informant.

Gillett ultimately arranged the delivery of a package of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that has reportedly led to cases of drug overdose across the US. Gillett was paid $4,000 as a first installment for that package by the DEA informant, and he and an associate went to Norfolk on April 23 to meet with his source and negotiate a final payment for the fentanyl.

Gillett and the associate with whom he traveled from Texas were arrested in Norfolk. His associate, however, was never named in the Virginia Pilot story.