Canine helps sniff out drug packages

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A city man who was arrested, police said, as he tried to pick up two packages containing 25 pounds of marijuana was apprehended with the help of a Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Department canine.

Meanwhile, the man’s attorney said Tuesday his client was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Frank P. Brown, 46, of 27 Hawk St., was arrested Feb. 15 when he tried to pick up two packages that contained a total of 25 pounds of marijuana, authorities said.

He is accused of going to the Schuyler Street Post Office in Schenectady just after 5:30 p.m. to pick up the packages. He provided a receipt and was arrested, according to papers filed in court.

Authorities’ interest in the packages was piqued two days earlier, on Feb. 13. That’s when a random check of the Troy Post Office by the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Deputy Sandy Blodgett and dog Bleau turned up the suspicious packages, according to a search warrant filed in federal court last week.

Bleau, a six-year veteran, is a Labrador certified to detect marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs. He has discovered drugs in packages before, Blodgett said Tuesday, but not this much.

“He’s very good at this,” she said.

The U.S. postal inspector took over from there, with the help of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Schenectady Police Department.

One package was sent from Phoenix, the other from Tempe, Ariz. Both were sent to a woman at a Lansing Street address and had return addresses to a woman in Chandler, Ariz. Officials could find no record of women by those names living at those addresses.

With the packages searched, authorities then waited for someone to pick them up. That someone was allegedly Brown.

Brown’s attorney James Walsh said Tuesday his client went to the post office, waited 20 minutes and was arrested as he tried to leave. Walsh said his client was arrested for simply being there. He didn’t even touch the packages.

“Even if he did go there to pick up the package, there’s no proof or evidence he knows who sent the package or what was in the package,” Walsh said.

Walsh appeared in City Court with Brown Tuesday, when the case was rescheduled in two weeks. Brown is free on $30,000 bond.