RIVERSIDE, California – A father and son have been arrested and charged in federal court in connection with a robbery late last week at a United States Postal Service facility in Victorville.

According to court documents filed on Friday, the father and son – Corey Parker Sr., 46, and Corey Parker Jr., 23, both of Adelanto – also are suspects in a series of Postal truck robberies across Southern California that has caused more than $400,000 in losses.

The Parkers were charged Friday in a criminal complaint filed in United States District Court. The complaint charges both men with conspiracy to rob the Victorville Post Office on Thursday night.

According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaints, the pair also are believed to have committed a string of postal truck robberies over the last 18 months – thefts that occurred while the trucks were moving or otherwise in transit. During those robberies, the thieves jumped on the back of a postal truck and opened the rear door to steal the truck's contents, specifically registered mail that included cash, checks and money orders.

The Parkers made their initial court appearances on Friday afternoon, and United States Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym ordered them detained – held without bond – pending trial. A preliminary hearing in this case was scheduled for March 17, and the two men are scheduled to be arraigned on March 22.

“The brazen acts of these defendants demonstrate the lengths to which mail thieves will go, including jumping onto moving vehicles and attempting to rob secure post offices,” said United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker. “This case is the latest of several cases highlighting my office's focus on criminals victimizing the Postal Service and its customers.”

“This arrest is a result of determination and good old-fashioned police work exhibited by the Postal Inspectors assigned to the case,” said William Hedrick, Postal Inspector in Charge of the Los Angeles Field Office. He added, “A large part of the Postal Inspection Service mission is assuring the safety of postal employees and we want them to have confidence that they can focus on their duties. These types of crimes against postal employees are rare, but when they do occur, they become top priority for us.”

If convicted of the conspiracy charge in the criminal complaint, the defendants each would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.

A criminal complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in court.

This matter is being investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service, with the assistance of the Rialto Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Bilal Essayli of the Riverside Branch Office.

The Parkers are the latest defendants to be charged in relation to crimes affecting the mails and the United States Postal Service.

Other cases prosecuted recently by the United States Attorney's Office include:

· 33 defendants charged across 28 cases;

· 11 defendants charged across seven cases in the Inland Empire;

· Carlos Canjura, 54 of Van Nuys;

· Chinh Vuong, 48, of Garden Grove;

· Bernie Martinez, 23, and Kammi Leigh Vestesen, 24, both of Corona; and

· Paul Wagner, 28, of Corona.

This representative sample of cases is only a portion of the cases charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office in which the mail service was victimized. To address the rising problem of mail theft and crimes such as identity theft that flow from mail theft, the Los Angeles-based U.S. Attorney's Office more than doubled the number of cases charged which were investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service from 2015 to 2016.

USAO – California, CentralUpdated March 6, 2017

Central District of California DOJ / 17-045 / March 6, 2017