If the Unabomber were dead, he’d roll over in his grave.
New details have emerged about the investigation that led police to arrest a Streeterville man for allegedly mailing packages of narcotics that sparked a hazardous materials response in Logan Square this month.
Pawel Borowski-Beszta was arrested about three hours after authorities closed the area around Central and Fullerton while a bomb team and other personnel investigated the packages.
Prosecutors then charged him with felony trafficking of a controlled substance and felony manufacture-delivery of a controlled substance.
But how did police find Borowski-Beszta so quickly?
According to police records, around 10 a.m. on the day of his arrest, Borowski-Beszta ordered an Uber to take him to a Subway restaurant on the 4300 block of West Armitage.
Along the way, Borowski-Beszta asked the Uber driver to pull over because he wanted to mail something. The driver did.
That’s when… You’re not going to believe this.
That’s when police say Borowski-Beszta pulled his hoodie over his face, put on sunglasses and gloves, then “carefully placed a package into a mailbox” at a massive intersection with no fewer than four city surveillance cameras in plain view. On the 18th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The Uber driver found that to be suspicious for some reason and he called police after dropping Borowski-Beszta off at the sandwich shop.
While postal inspectors, police, and fire personnel swarmed the mailbox, other officers went to the sandwich shop and found Borowski-Beszta walking across the parking lot, they said.
Investigators found a total of 14 Priority Mail packages containing narcotics inside the mailbox.
Altogether, the packages contained 1,283 Xanax pills worth $10 each and 18 grams of methamphetamine, police said.
But that’s not the first time Borowski-Beszta has been accused of trafficking narcotics.
In fact, at the time of the mailing, he was free on bond while awaiting trial for another major drug bust last winter.
On Valentine’s Day —What is it with him and important dates?—cops pulled Borowski-Beszta over in the 1000 block of West Roosevelt because he was driving with a flat tire.
Officers allegedly found a trove of drugs in the vehicle: 20,000 Xanax pills; over 900 grams of meth; up to 100 grams of cocaine; and more than 5,000 grams of pot. Prosecutors charged the 25-year-old with a laundry list of felonies and he was released on bail.
In 2012, Borowski-Beszta was sentenced to six years in prison for Class X felony manufacture-delivery of cocaine. He also received concurrent terms of three years for unlawful possession of a handgun; three years for manufacture-delivery of cannabis; and three years for felony theft, according to state records. He was discharged from parole on Sept. 8 last year.