A lawman turned bandit pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday in connection with a bizarre armed robbery in Yuba City last year.
In a case seemingly lifted from a film noir plot, prosecutors accused Deputy Federal Marshal Clorenzo Griffin of organizing a small crew to conduct armed robberies against cash-rich North State marijuana traffickers.
Griffin, 38, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiring to commit a robbery.
Griffin’s associates, both of Miami, were sentenced to six and seven years respectively.
Federal prosecutors said Griffin and his associates were wearing body armor and brandished firearms when they robbed three local men of 24 pounds of marijuana in a motel parking lot in Yuba City.
The plot unraveled when a Highway Patrol officer pulled over their Jeep as they sped away.
Griffin faces up to 12 years when he is sentenced in March.