Ex-deputy gets 7 years in prison for orchestrating armed robbery of downtown L.A. weed warehouse
Los Angeles CA April 14 2021 Following the convictions of six co-conspirators, a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was sentenced to seven years in federal prison Monday for orchestrating a $2 million armed robbery of a weed warehouse in downtown Los Angeles.
Marc Antrim, 43, of South El Monte, pleaded guilty in March 2019 to several criminal charges in connection with the Oct. 29, 2018 heist. He and a group of co-conspirators were dressed as Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies when they carried out a “search” at a warehouse.
In reality, Antrim was not serving a legitimate search warrant but rather robbing the warehouse, stealing 1,200 pounds of weed worth an estimated $1.5 million and $645,000 in cash.
According to prosecutors, the judge who sentenced Antrim said he significantly reduced the former deputy’s prison sentence because Antrim testified against Christopher Myung Kim, a disgruntled former employee of the warehouse. Kim, a 31-year-old resident of Walnut, helped execute the heist.
While both men were convicted of the same five criminal charges, Kim received a 14-year prison term — twice the prison time Antrim is expected to serve. Kim must also pay a $500,000 fine.
Upon arriving to the warehouse, Antrim flashed his sheriff’s badge and a fake search warrant to security guards working at the entrance. He and the other thieves wore duty belts, carried firearms and arrived in an official patrol vehicle — an LASD Ford Explorer. One of the fake deputies carried a long gun to intimidate the guards, according to prosecutors.
The men detained three security guards inside the cage of the Ford Explorer, prosecutors said. When a fourth man arrived in a large rental truck, all four started loading marijuana into the truck.
Later, Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to a call for service at the warehouse, and Antrim lied and told them he was a narcotics detective executing a search. More of Antrim’s co-conspirators arrived once the LAPD officers left.
The thieves were able to load up more stolen marijuana and cash once police left, prosecutors said.
Two years ago, Antrim pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute marijuana, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to deprive rights under color of law, deprivation of rights under color of law and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Since then, six other people have been convicted in the armed robbery.
Kim, the disgruntled former warehouse employee, worked there for several years before leaving his job just weeks before the crime. He was convicted of the same charges as Antrim but received a prison sentence that’s seven years longer.
He conspired with Antrim to carry out the heist “both for profit and to get revenge against his own bosses,” U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Ciaran McEvoy wrote in a statement from the agency.
Two other co-conspirators — Kevin McBride, 45, of Glendora and Eric Rodriguez, 35, of Adelanto —are serving prison terms of six and nine years, respectively.
As part of a related case, Matthew James Perez, 44, of Ontario is also serving six months in prison, Daniel Aguilera, 33, of Los Angeles is serving two years and Jay Colby Sanford, 43, of Pomona received five years’ probation.
A man identified as Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Marc Antrim is seen meeting Los Angeles police officers at the scene of a downtown L.A. robbery in a photo released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
