A former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy who staged a $2 million robbery of a marijuana warehouse was sentenced Monday to seven years in federal prison.
Marc Antrim, 43, of South El Monte, helped orchestrate an October 2018 raid on a warehouse in downtown Los Angeles in which about $645,000 in cash and more than a half-ton of marijuana were stolen, prosecutors said.
At his sentencing, U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips said the heist “sounded like a movie script” but was “tragic” for the victims and eroded public trust in law enforcement, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.
Antrim, a patrol deputy at the Temple City sheriff’s station, used a fake search warrant to get by the warehouse security guards, arrived in a sheriff’s patrol vehicle and was accompanied by non-deputies who wore Sheriff’s Department uniforms including duty belts and had guns, prosecutors said.
Over two hours, Antrim and others emptied the warehouse of pot and two large safes, authorities said.
During the robbery, Los Angeles police were called to the warehouse but Antrim falsely told them he was a narcotics deputy “conducting a legitimate search” and they left, prosecutors said.
Antrim wasn’t on duty, wasn’t assigned to the Sheriff’s Department’s narcotics division and wouldn’t have any “legitimate reason” to search a warehouse in Los Angeles, authorities said.
Antrim pleaded guilty in 2019 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.
Six other people have been convicted in the case and were sentenced to six to 14 years in federal prison.
The Associated Press contributed to this article