EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – A federal grand jury issued a 10-count indictment against three people for allegedly stealing checks from mailboxes to access victims’ banking information.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois said Tylann J. Starks, 29, Tiara D. Johnson, 32, and Jamil Jackson, 51, targeted mail collection boxes in Fairview Heights from February 2020 through February 2023.

According to the indictment, Starks purchased what’s known as an “arrow key” from Jackson, a former USPS employee, to access collection boxes in the Metro East. The USPS labels its arrow keys with serial numbers so they can be tracked.

Prosecutors claim Starks and Johnson went around to several collection points, searching for checks or other personal information they could find. They would cash or deposit the checks at businesses, banks, and ATMs in Belleville, East St. Louis, and O’Fallon.

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Prosecutors also claim Jackson would outright steal checks from his route and give them to Starks. The trio used any stolen account information to make counterfeit checks.

Federal agents eventually apprehended Jackson after conducting an undercover purchase of a second arrow key for $1,000.

Starks was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, four counts of bank fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of conspiracy to steal U.S. mail.

Johnson was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, one count of bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy to steal U.S. mail.

Jackson was charged with one count of conspiracy to steal U.S. mail., one count of theft of a specialized key to access U.S. Postal receptacles, and one count of making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer.

If convicted, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud charges are punishable by up to 30 years’ imprisonment; aggravated identity theft and stealing post office keys can carry sentences of up to 10 years’ imprisonment; and conspiracy to steal U.S. mail and false statement convictions can garner up to five years in federal prison.

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