Local News in Brief : Loot Found at End of Trail, Deputies Say

Sheriff’s deputies said they found $238,000 in cash, an automatic rifle and two handguns in the Paramount apartment where a suspect ran after leading them on a brief car chase and dropping a 5 1/2-pound bag of cocaine.

The officers spotted a Corvette driven by Robert Lartigue, 24, speeding south on Vermont Avenue in Paramount about 7:20 p.m. Wednesday, Deputy Dan Cox said, and the pursuit ended when he pulled into an underground parking lot of an apartment building in the 15900 block.

Lartigue got out of his car and ran toward his apartment but dropped the bag as he ran, Cox said. The officers followed him inside where they said they found his wife, Marian, 24; Carlotta Hart, 46, and Robert Shepard, 27, as well as the cash in a suitcase, the AR-15 rifle and the handguns.

Street value of the cocaine was estimated at between $80,000 and $90,000.

Lartigue and the others were booked at the Lakewood Sheriff’s Station on suspicion of possession of cocaine for sale. Bail was set at $1 million each.