TEMPLE (June 13, 2012)--A former Temple FedEx driver was sentenced to federal prison Wednesday after he earlier pleaded guilty to possessing items stolen from an interstate shipment.

Marion Samuel Perkins was ordered to serve two years in federal prison to be followed by three years on supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,002,424.40 in restitution and a $100 special assessment to the court.

Federal court documents say Perkins and another driver, George Greene, Jr., conspired to steal more than $2 million dollars worth of cellular telephones and other electronics from Federal Express shipments that were sent to bogus addresses in Bell County.

An intensive investigation involving Killeen and Temple police and agents of the U.S. Secret Service identified Perkins and Greene in a scheme to place fraudulent orders for Verizon Wireless products and accessories and then to steal them from the FedEx storage facility, all the while showing the orders to have been delivered.

An investigation revealed Greene and Perkins generated bogus orders of cellular telephones and other devices from the Verizon Wireless Corp. and then had those items shipped to addresses in Bell County.

Investigators say between Jan. 1, 2011 and Aug. 29, 2011, more than 1,700 items were stolen with a total value of more than $2 million.

During the investigation, officers set up surveillance at both drivers’ residences and watched as both men loaded and unloaded items from their garages into the personal vehicles.

Investigators obtained a federal search warrant that led them to more than $250,000 worth of Verizon Wireless phones and accessories.

Both men later admitted their involvement in the scheme.