St. Louis, MO - Leronald Loper was sentenced to 210 months in prison for attempting to plan and execute a robbery of the Job Corps located on Goodfellow Boulevard, and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. As an employee, Loper knew that an armored car would be delivering in excess of $50,000 to Job Corps during the morning hours of December 14, 2011. Job Corps is a no-cost education and career technical training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor that helps young people ages 16 through 24 improve the quality of their lives through career technical and academic training.

According to statements made in court at the time of the plea, on December 2011, law enforcement officers obtained information that Loper and others were conspiring to enlist would be robbers to rob the Job Corps. On December 13, 2011, during the late afternoon, Loper met with an undercover ATF agent posing as the leader of a robbery crew, and advised the agent as to the date and time, where the money would be located after the delivery and that there would be approximately three employees in the room with the money. He counseled the agent on the timing of the robbery – that it needed to occur immediately after the money was delivered, but before it was disbursed. Loper agreed that the money should be split evenly among all parties involved, including himself, and drew a map to aid the agent as to the entry of the business facility and to indicate the location of the office where the money would be located.

LERONALD LOPER, Jennings, MO, pled guilty in July to one felony count of interfering with commerce by threat or violence and one felony count of being a previously convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He appeared today for sentencing before United States District Judge Carol E. Jackson.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Deportment- Violent Offenders Unit. Each of these agencies acted with great speed to avert a potentially violent armed robbery. Assistant United States Attorney Michael Reilly handled the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.