Feds take suspect in mail theft case that unraveled in Peters Township
The federal government will prosecute a Florida man who was arrested last week in Peters Township as an alleged member of a fraud ring that had stolen thousands of dollars from a bank.
The decision led the Washington County district attorney’s office to withdraw state charges Tuesday against Cassio Orville Donald Slowden, 27, of Pembroke, said his attorney, Steve Toprani.
Slowden was arrested Feb. 11 by Peters police after he allegedly was caught stealing mail from a Citizens Bank customer on Will Scarlett Drive.
Police said the ring had been operating in the northeastern United States, using its members to place calls to the bank’s customer service department and impersonate its customers.
The callers requested new banking cards and PINs be mailed to the real customers at their home addresses. They also signed up for notifications as to when the cards would be delivered in order to steal them from mailboxes, court records show.
Other customers in that Peters neighborhood were targeted by the ring, which authorities say had stolen more than $500,000 from the bank since January 2018.
Police said last week that 104 Citizens customers had been targeted by the operation.
Felony counts of identity theft and conspiring to commit identity theft were withdrawn against Slowden, who has been held in Washington County jail on a federal detainer.
He was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on one charge of theft of mail, the office of U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady said Tuesday.
Snowden has an initial appearance in federal court today before Magistrate Judge Cynthia Eddy, a spokeswoman for Brady said.