BOSTON (AP) — A postal worker who tracked, stole and opened mail that he suspected contained drugs and then kept any narcotics that he found pleaded guilty Friday.

Shawn Herron, 44, of Whitman, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute and theft of mail by a postal employee, the U.S. attorney's office in Boston said in a statement.

According to prosecutors, Herron, using the postal service’s own databases to track the parcels, targeted priority mail from Puerto Rico and the West Coast as well as parcels flagged by law enforcement as potentially containing illegal narcotics, and removed them from the mail stream.

He then took the parcels to his office where he stole any drugs he found.

Herron has worked for the postal service since 2005, in Canton and Fall River.

He faces a maximum of 25 years in prison at sentencing scheduled for Feb. 17.