Cleveland police arrest man after they say he had 2 pounds of heroin delieverd to his job

CLEVELAND - Police reports and court records show Cleveland police arrested a man for sending two pounds of black tar heroin through the mail.

Thirty-one-year-old Eugene A. Padgett was arrested Wednesday for sending the drugs to the MLK recreation center. A police source says Padgett was recently fired from the center. Police stated in the report that the drugs were detected during a random search at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and were flown in from Arizona.

A narcotics detective, who preferred to remain anonymous, said Arizona is a "source state." He said it's one of the states where the drug is easy to grow and manufacture and often packages are randomly checked when coming in. The packages are checked by the Cleveland Police package interdiction unit.

Once detectives spotted the package they did a controlled delivery. The U.S. Post Office delivered the drugs to 14801 Shaw Avenue where police say Padgett picked it up. He brought the drugs back to his home in the 13000 block of Garden Street in East Cleveland where he was arrested.

Padgett has been charged with trafficking and drug possession. When he was fired from his East Cleveland job was unavailable. Calls to Mayor Gary Norton were not returned. Detectives say the street value of the drugs is about $90,000.