E-mail is such an easy way to touch base with a friend or schedule a business meeting.
Or, in the case of a Lancaster man, an easy way to arrange drug deals with associates in a foreign country, according to federal authorities.
Benjamin Dale Leaman, 54, of 309 W. Lemon St., was indicted by federal authorities Wednesday and charged with crimes stemming from illegally possessing and importing painkillers.
For more than two years, federal officials said, Leaman was e-mailing a friend in Brazil, placing orders for prescription painkiller pills.
They'd agree on a quantity and price, prosecutors said.
They'd arrange for different variations of the pills and delivery sites for the packages — either to Leaman's Lancaster home or to a mailbox he rented in Leola.
Leaman would wire the money in amounts ranging from $1,000 to $2,975, prosecutors said, and a few days later a package containing the contraband drugs would arrive.
Part of the agreement between the two, agents said, was that proceeds from the sales would be used to "buy additional drugs" in the future.
The transactions happened more than a dozen times, prosecutors said, until federal agents paid a personal visit to Leaman's home on July 23, confiscating computers, cash and controlled substances.
Leaman was arrested, according to federal officials, and released on bail pending a court hearing.
According to court documents, the investigation began more than two years ago when federal agents began looking at a Brazilian man they suspected of illegally exporting controlled substances to the United States and elsewhere.
One of his customers, according to the criminal complaint, was Leaman.
Agents discovered that between July 2006 and August 2008 Leaman had been making the deals via e-mail and sending payments via Western Union.
The indictment specified nine of the transactions, which totaled just shy of $17,000 worth of purchases.
Federal authorities cited those transactions to support money laundering charges against Leaman.
Money laundering, officials said, is the transfer or transmission of funds from the United States to a place outside the country for the purpose of an unlawful activity.
Court records indicate Leaman's profit in the operation was more than $32,000.
One example of Leaman's transactions, cited in the indictment, occurred on Aug. 18, 2008.
In that instance, federal authorities said Leaman e-mailed his Brazilian friend asking him to send 150 oxycodone tablets, saying he wanted to "move 500 or more a month again in time."
Then, officials said, Leaman wired $2,250.
Two days later, a package from Brazil arrived at the mailbox in Leola, containing, among other things, the oxycodone tablets in a white plastic bottle.
On July 23, federal agents went to Leaman's Lancaster home with a search warrant in hand.
Inside, they found "multiple computers and monitors … more than two dozen $100 bills" and lots of illegal painkillers, including hydrocodone and oxycodone.
Oxycodone is the active ingredient in painkilling medications such as Percocet and OxyContin.
Agents also found rounds of live shotgun and rifle ammunition.
Because Leaman was convicted of a felony drug trafficking charge in 1980, federal authorities said, he is not allowed to possess ammunition.
The case was presented to a federal grand jury, resulting in the indictment, which does not name Leaman's alleged Brazilian contact.
With the indictment filed last week, Leaman was charged with one count each of importing oxycodone, possession with intent to distribute oxycodone and possession with intent to distribute hydrocodone.
He also was charged with one count each of conspiracy to import and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, including oxycodone, methodone and morphine — all of which are described as painkillers.
Leaman also was charged with nine counts of money laundering.
E-mail: jkelley@lnpnews.com
