A San Diego gun store owner convicted of assisting a former SDSO captain in his side business of unlawful firearms sales was sentenced to six months in prison, plus six months of home confinement.
Prosecutors said Giovanni Tilotta worked with Sheriff's Department Capt. Marco Garmo and others to make "straw purchases": falsely claiming to be the buyers of firearms while actually purchasing the guns on behalf of others, including the prominent San Diego jeweler Leo Hamel.
Former Sheriff’s Captain Sentenced to Prison for Illegal Gun Deals and Corruption
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NEWS RELEASE SUMMARY – March 12, 2021
SAN DIEGO – Former San Diego County Sheriff’s Captain Marco Garmo was sentenced to two years in prison today for years of unlawful firearms transactions and for an array of corrupt conduct relating to unlicensed marijuana dispensaries operating in his former jurisdiction.
In pronouncing sentence, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel said that Garmo’s conduct demonstrated arrogance reaching a level where Garmo was “almost becoming a mob boss of sorts” in picking winners and losers and dispensing unlawful favors to friends and family.
2021/03/13 07:51 SAN DIEGO (AP) A former San Diego County sheriff’s captain who used his law enforcement credentials to run a gun trafficking business was sentenced Friday to two years in prison by a federal judge who said his arrogance was comparable to “a mob boss of sorts. Former San Diego County Sheriff’s Captain Marco Garmo pleaded guilty in September that he had acted as an unlicensed firearm dealer, buying almost 150 weapons and reselling nearly 100 over a period of roughly six years. A number of those transactions involved “straw purchases,” where Garmo acquired firearms for others since law enforcement officers are exempt from California s limits on certain newer handguns.