Buffalo postal carrier took bribes to help drug dealers

BUFFALO — Federal prosecutors say a 56-year-old postal carrier has pleaded guilty to bribery for taking money from Buffalo drug dealers in exchange for handling drug deliveries.

U.S. Attorney William Hochul Jr. announced Thursday that Dennis Bernhard, of Derby, faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he’s sentenced on May 18.

Bernhard was a mail carrier 16 years, working out of Buffalo’s Eastside Station Post Office for the last 10 years. Prosecutors say he gave drug dealers the addresses of unsuspecting citizens on his delivery route so they could mail boxes of narcotics to them. When the packages arrived in the Post Office, Bernhard didn’t deliver them to the addresses but instead gave them to the drug dealers in exchange for money.