A jury convicted a former employee of a downtown Los Angeles marijuana warehouse Friday for his role in an armed robbery at the business, which was coordinated and led by a corrupt Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, prosecutors said.
Christopher Myung Kim, 29, of Walnut, was found guilty by a federal jury in L.A. of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent, conspiracy against rights, deprivation of rights under color of law and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, according to U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Ciaran McEvoy. He was acquitted of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Kim had worked at the warehouse for several years, but had become “disgruntled” and left his job weeks before the heist, prosecutors said.
He then conspired with then-L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Marc Antrim, 42, of South El Monte, who was assigned to the Temple Station, to rob the warehouse, “both for profit and to get revenge against his own bosses,” McEvoy said in a written statement.
While off-duty, Antrim showed up at the warehouse in uniform with six co-conspirators, falsely claiming to be carrying out a legitimate law enforcement raid, officials said.
“Antrim, who was dressed as an armed deputy, flashed his badge and a fake search warrant to gain access to the warehouse and detain the warehouse’s security guards in a cage in the back of an LASD Ford Explorer,” McEvoy said.
“During the two-hour robbery, Antrim and the fake law enforcement team absconded with more than 1,200 pounds of marijuana, two large commercial safes containing more than $600,000 in cash and money orders and other items of value from the warehouse,” McEvoy added.
In the days leading up to the heist, Kim provided Antrim with blueprints and information such as details about the layout of the warehouse, where valuables were stored and where security guards were likely to be positioned, federal officials said.
In the hours after the robbery, Antrim drove a truck to a Walnut storage unit rented by Kim and gave him about $1.5 million worth of marijuana to resell for profit.
Kim faces a minimum sentence of 12 years in federal prison when he returns to court for sentencing on Feb. 10, officials said. He faces a maximum sentence of life behind bars.
Antrim, who was arrested the week after the robbery and has since agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a series of federal crimes and is scheduled to be sentenced March 16. He also faces a minimum sentence of 12 years in federal prison.
Five other defendants in the case have pleaded guilty for their roles in the robbery and are scheduled to be sentenced early next year, officials said.
An additional L.A. County sheriff’s deputy has been charged with resisting, delaying or obstructing a peace officer for lying about the marijuana warehouse robbery to an L.A. Police Department investigator, officials said. The case was filed last month, and details have not been released.