A 51-year-old Orlando man was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for taking part in an armed robbery in which he used his own job as a security guard to target two of his colleagues during a cigarette delivery in Hammond, Indiana. Andrew Wells Sr. pleaded guilty to robbery affecting commerce, and a federal judge also ordered him to pay $25,699 in restitution and serve two years of supervised release once he's out.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Wells was sentenced on September 24, 2026, by U.S. District Court Judge Philip P. Simon. The case stemmed from an October 25, 2022 robbery in Hammond, where Wells and a second robber stole 11 cases and two cartons of cigarettes while a third accomplice held two delivery workers at gunpoint, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Insider Access Turned Into a Weapon
Federal prosecutors said Wells worked as a security guard for the distribution company and used that insider access to target his own coworkers during the heist. U.S. Attorney Adam L. Mildred emphasized the betrayal at the heart of the case, saying Wells violated a position of trust.
The delivery workers targeted in the robbery were employees of Core-Mark, Inc., a cigarette distributor. Core-Mark operates as a subsidiary of Performance Food Group and ranks among North America's largest convenience store wholesale distributors, with approximately $17 billion in net sales and supplying tens of thousands of retail locations across the United States and Canada, per CSP Daily News.
Plea to Robbery Affecting Commerce
Wells pleaded guilty to robbery affecting commerce.
The investigation into the robbery was a joint effort between the Hammond Police Department and the FBI's Gang Response Investigative Team, known as the GRIT Task Force, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Dean R. Lanter leading the prosecution. GRIT has also worked on cold cases, the FBI said.
The Hammond Police Department is led by Chief Jeff Long and Assistant Chief Christopher Gootee, who was appointed to the role in April 2026 after previously serving as a task force officer on the FBI's GRIT Task Force, according to the City of Hammond. The robbery involved a second robber and a third accomplice who held the delivery workers at gunpoint.
