How to Detect Drug Trafficking in the Workplace
Is an employee selling drugs from their job? What are signs of drug trafficking in the workplace? What can human resources do to stop drug dealing at work? These are questions every business owner and human resources department should be asking themselves before contacting a private investigator.
Why is an employee meeting with people in the parking lot on break?
It’s common for drug deals to happen in cars. It makes for a quick and private way to do an exchange in plain sight. In the backseat of car, on break from work, is where Jade Violes sold heroin while working at a Pizza Hut in Indiana.
In 2015, Violes was arrested for selling heroin after an undercover police officer purchased from her in the Pizza Hut parking lot. If an employee is meeting with people in cars during work hours it’s not unreasonable to suspect they may be selling drugs.
Why do employees keep meeting in the bathroom?
Do employees sell drugs in the bathroom at work? At the Senate mail room in Pennsylvania they did. This past March two employees of the Pennsylvania Senate were charged with crimes related to the distribution of heroin. A third employee was also fired from their job in connection to the drug peddling.
Police were alerted to the crimes when an employee not involved in the inter-office drug trade found 20 packets of heroin in the bathroom. Corey Miller was charged with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance after police found eight more packets of heroin in his wallet. Bathrooms can offer privacy to employees that some find too tempting to resist exploiting.
How can they afford all that stuff?
Does driving a fancy car mean someone is selling drugs? What about buying a new big screen TV and the latest smart phone? What if an employee is doing all of this and more? If this is the case then you may want to call an investigator.
Human resources departments know how much an employee earns from their job. If an employee is suddenly showing up in expensive clothes with fancy accessories and they haven’t picked up a second job then something could be up. It’s one thing to live outside your means, but there are limits to how much one can acquire on credit alone.
We recently fired an employee for using drugs at work. Could there be more?
Was an employee recently fired for using drugs at work? Were they the only person using on the job? Were they buying drugs at work? These are questions every human resources department should be asking when an employee is caught using drugs on the job.
Some businesses believe the nature of their work precludes them from having drug dealers in their midst, but that’s a mistake. It may be easy to write-off drug dealing from Pizza Hut, but it’s tougher when someone like 53-year-old James Peter Kranyecz gets busted selling marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine from the church he worked at.
We caught an employee bringing drugs to work. Were they the only one?
Catch an employee with a small amount of drugs? Don’t just assume it was for personal use. The packaging and quantity of drugs should be taken note of when considering what to do next. Did the employee bring drugs on-site for personal use or were they distributing to coworkers? Was the employee acting alone or with their coworkers?
Earlier this year five United States Postal workers were arrested after conspiring to help distribute marijuana through the postal system. First, the postal workers gave their work schedules and routes to a drug dealer. Then the dealer timed when he mailed the drugs to make sure they ended up in the postal workers’ hands. According to News 5 Cleveland, Michael Tobin of the US Attorney’s Office said, “These are folks who had jobs, decent jobs as mail carriers, and they threw it all away for $200, $300, $400 of cash.”
For Private Investigation Inquiry contact Thomas Lauth, Lauth Investigations 317-951-1100