Man pleads guilty in drug heist

An Edmonds man pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to robbery in connection with an attempted heist at a Marysville pharmacy on July 31 in an effort to get drugs.

Christian Klassen, 25, drove a getaway car in the attempt to rob an Albertsons store pharmacy in the 11400 block of Smokey Point Boulevard, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Klassen and another man arrived at the store with the intention of robbing the pharmacy of its OxyContin, a popular painkiller and the brand name for oxycodone, according to court documents.

Klassen’s friend went inside and handed a note to the pharmacist saying: “Give me all your OxyContin or I’ll start shooting. You have 60 seconds,” documents said.

The pharmacist started yelling and ran away from the counter. The man escaped through a back door, but set off an emergency alarm. He got into the car and Klassen drove away, documents said.

Police stopped the car a short distance away and arrested both men.

Inside the car police found a loaded .22-caliber pistol, a shotgun, pellet gun and drug paraphernalia, documents said.

As part of his guilty plea, Klassen also admitted that he and the same man on July 22 robbed a Rite Aid pharmacy in Edmonds, getting away with several bottles of oxycodone, documents said.

Klassen is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez on Jan. 18.

The case was prosecuted in federal court under a crackdown on a series of pharmacy burglaries and robberies, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

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