Former cargo handler sentenced to a year in prison after stealing 4 gold bars from LAX shipment

A former cargo handler was sentenced to a year in prison for stealing gold bars that had passed through LAX on its way from Australia to New York.

Marlon Moody, 39, of South Los Angeles, was sentenced Monday to 12 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a fine of $7,500. He and a co-defendant, 36-year-old Brian Benson, also of South Los Angeles, pleaded guilty last summer to one count of conspiracy to commit theft of an interstate or foreign shipment. Benson has since served a four-month prison sentence for his role in the theft.

Moody and Benson had both worked for Alliance Ground International, a company providing ground handling services at LAX, when Moody came upon a box containing 25 gold bars that became separated from a shipment on its way to New York from Australia. The shipment contained a total of 2,000 gold bars, each of which weighed a kilogram and was valued at approximately $56,000.

Moody found the missing box near the Singapore Airlines cargo warehouse on the morning of April 23, 2020, the day after the box went missing, and drove it to a nearby location where prosecutors say he removed four of the gold bars. When Benson arrived soon after to pick up Moody in a company van with other coworkers, they texted each about the gold bars. Prosecutors say they later left the airport for a nearby parking lot, where Moody gave Benson one of the gold bars.

The lost box with the 21 remaining gold bars with later found by other cargo handlers, and the investigation into the missing gold bars ultimately led to Moody and Benson, authorities said.

According to court documents, Moody gave one gold bar to a relative on May 4 and directed that person to exchange it "for a vehicle and/or money." Two of the gold bars were buried in the backyard of his home. All four gold bars were recovered by the FBI about two weeks after they went missing.

"[Moody] conspired to steal and actually stole $224,000 worth of gold and kept $112,000 worth for himself," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. "As an AGI employee, defendant was entrusted with handling cargo shipments at LAX and granted access to certain sections of the airport. [Moody] squandered that trust by stealing from those who relied on him to handle their property."