LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The former second-in-command of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was found guilty on Wednesday of conspiracy and obstruction of justice, stemming from a long-running corruption probe of the largest county jail system in the United States.

Paul Tanaka, who retired as undersheriff in 2013, is the latest member of the sheriff’s department to be convicted in the federal investigation of inmate abuse, cover ups and other wrongdoing at two Los Angeles County jails.

“Mr. Tanaka created a culture of corruption seen only in the movies, and certainly nothing that anyone would expect from the nation’s largest Sheriff’s department,” said David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s field office in Los Angeles.

Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, 73, pleaded guilty in February to lying to federal investigators about the case, which clouded the final years of his long career with the department.

Baca, who retired in 2014, faces sentencing later this year as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors that calls for him to serve six months behind bars.

Tanaka, who campaigned unsuccessfully for sheriff in 2014 before he was indicted in May of last year, was convicted by a jury after a 10-day trial in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Prosecutors told jurors the ex-lawman and his co-conspirators at the department tried to stymie the FBI probe by hiding an inmate in the jail system who was cooperating with agents.

They said Tanaka and others also sought a court order forcing the FBI to turn over its information and had two deputy sergeants approach an FBI agent outside her home and threaten to arrest her.

Tanaka’s defense attorneys argued at trial that it was Baca who orchestrated attempts to undermine the FBI investigation.

“The era of corruption which characterized the upper management in the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has ended with the conviction of former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka,” George Hofstetter, president of the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, said in a statement.

“The Department can move forward now that the truth about the failed leadership of disgraced former Sheriff Lee Baca and Undersheriff Paul Tanaka has been revealed through the judicial process,” Hofstetter said.

Tanaka, 57, also serves as mayor of suburban Gardena but took leave from that office to fight the charges. He faces up to 15 years in federal prison when he is sentenced in June.