Postal Heist Probe Leads to Latin America : Crime: Thieves would take envelopes from home mail boxes and launder any checks they found through foreign banks. Five people were arrested in January, but that does not satisfy at least two angry victims.

Carolyn Ditzian doesn’t send mail from her house anymore--she can’t be sure who will cash her utility or tax payments. Her friend Ann Prochaska feels the same way.

Both were victims of a scheme in which thousands of dollars worth of personal checks were stolen from home mail boxes where they awaited pickup by mail carriers, and then laundered through Latin American banks.

Though the women--who live miles apart--were eventually reimbursed by U.S. banks that processed the checks, they say the incident has convinced them the sanctity of the U.S. mail is a fallacy.

“I had to repay everybody until I was reimbursed,” said Prochaska, of suburban Davie. Checks of hers worth $4,000 were stolen last February. “I was just angry. I felt violated. I’ve never had anybody rob the house, but it felt the same.”

Ditzian, who lost checks worth more than $5,000, including her property tax payment, said that initially no one wanted to hear her story.

“The first time I called police, they didn’t even take a report on it,” said Ditzian, 62, of Broward County. “The post office was absolutely no help at all.”

Not so, says Postal Inspector Henry Gutierrez, who infiltrated the scam.

Federal agents in January arrested five men, two from Argentina and three from Miami. All are charged with possession of stolen mail and could face 10 years in prison if convicted.

Gutierrez said he identified the main check fence and said money-laundering charges are pending.

“There’s still thieves down the line out there,” Gutierrez said. “But they have no way of laundering the money.”

Gutierrez said the men stole more than 1,000 checks worth about $1 million--ranging from a 25-cent highway toll fee to a $42,000 check, and including everything from utility payments to catalogue orders.

The checks were then sold to middlemen who deposited them in bank accounts opened under the names of fictitious businesses.

The accounts were throughout Latin America: Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Ecuador.

“We are talking about a great number of banks as well as individuals,” Gutierrez said. “They’d cash checks in Costa Rica and then they moved over to Mexico. Obviously, they were very active.”

In January, postal and Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents intercepted a package, destined for Brazil, that contained more than 100 stolen checks worth $400,000.

The scam took advantage of lax banking laws in Latin America that allowed accomplices to stamp the backs of the checks with official-looking endorsements for deposit, Gutierrez said.

“When you cash a check, you submit ID, but when you deposit a check you don’t really look. . . . It’s a big difference,” he said.

But he questions how these Latin American banks could accept thousands of dollars of checks made out to third parties and not get suspicious.

In the meantime, Ditzian and Prochaska both complain the Postal Service never returned their calls and they don’t know if the five men arrested were the ones responsible for lifting their mail.

Ditzian said she had to pay about $500 in interest and penalties because her property tax check never reached the county assessor.

“If you think these five are the end of it, it is not the end of it,” she said. “There are 25 more that have the same idea . . . and it’s going to continue.”