A 40-year-old man pleaded guilty Friday to drug trafficking charges in Dallas County Circuit Court.

According to District Attorney Michael Jackson, Christopher Lee Singleton was set to face trial this week, but entered a guilty plea instead. Singleton was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Singleton was arrested for having packages suspected to be filled with drugs delivered to a Water Avenue home.

“He was getting it shipped in here, and then the postal inspector got alerted,” Jackson said. “Thankfully it was brought to law enforcement’s attention, and they put a halt to this. They did a great job on this.”

Singleton was arrested after an investigation by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and the United States Postal Inspection Service.

According to court documents, ALEA agents assisted a U.S. Postal Service inspector on Oct. 23, 2015, with surveillance after getting a search warrant to open two packages suspected of having drugs in them. The packages were addressed to a home on the 2400 block of Water Avenue.

After a postal carrier delivered two packages, the agents approached the house and knocked on the door. A juvenile that took the packages inside answered. The packages were seized after a search warrant was obtained and executed on the house.

During the investigation, a woman identified as Loletha Beverly, showed up to the house and stated she lived there. She, along with three others, were interviewed by investigators. Beverly told investigators she was waiting on a package for “someone named Joe.” Beverly said she had retrieved a packed for the same person before. She also said “Joe” was working with a postal employee named Kizzy Stallworth Simmons.

Simmons was interviewed at the post office in Selma by a postal inspector. She told the inspector she worked a route that included Sardis, Minter, Furman, Pine Apple and Oak Hill.

In court documents, investigators said Simmons denied having anything to do with drugs at first but later admitted to “being approached by a male subject called ‘Old School.’”

She later identified “Old School” as Christopher Singleton. Simmons said she previously had a relationship with Singleton. She said he would contact her when he was expecting packages and asked her to hold them for him until he could pick them up. Investigators said Beverly estimated helping Singleton with at least six packages. She also admitted she had knowledge of Singleton selling drugs and suspected the packages contained drugs. Simmons, who was a contracted postal carrier, was arrested in April 2016. She, along with Selma postal carrier Nakia Johnson, were charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and possession with intent to distribute marijuana. They will be prosecuted in the U.S. Southern District of Alabama in Mobile.