LOS ANGELES (AP) — A U.S. Marine who was an ammunition specialist at California’s Camp Pendleton is charged with stealing ammo and weapons, together with a shoulder-fired missile system, and conspiring to promote them in Arizona, in keeping with courtroom paperwork.
Cpl. Andrew Paul Amarillas pleaded not responsible final Thursday in Phoenix to a number of fees together with conspiracy to commit theft and embezzlement of presidency property, and possession and sale of stolen ammunition. A choose ordered him to be held in custody pending trial.
Messages had been despatched Monday searching for remark from an legal professional for Amarillas and officers at Camp Pendleton.
Federal prosecutors stated Amarillas used his place as a technical specialist on the Faculty of Infantry West to steal not less than one Javelin missile system, 1000’s of rounds of military-grade ammunition and different weapons-related materials between February 2022 and November 2025.
He is accused of transporting the stolen materials to his house state of Arizona, the place he offered them to unnamed co-conspirators, who then resold the tools to others, prosecutors stated. Some however not all the stolen weapons and ammo has been recovered.
A co-conspirator had a quantity for Amarillas saved in a cellphone underneath the nickname “Andrew Ammo,” courtroom paperwork stated.
“(I) have 2 launchers that (I) suppose you’d like, if you wish to have a look tomorrow,” Amarillas texted to a co-conspirator in August, in keeping with the prison criticism. The textual content messages additionally included images, together with one among a transportable Javelin missile system with a serial quantity that matched one which Amarillas had signed out from the navy base close to San Diego, the criticism stated.
A few of the ammunition was bought from co-conspirators by undercover officers, prosecutors stated.
“The objects of the conspiracy had been to steal property and ammunition from the U.S. navy and promote stolen U.S. navy property and ammunition to others to earn cash,” stated the criticism filed in U.S. District Court docket for Arizona.
In 2021, explosives went lacking from the Marine Corps Air Floor Fight Middle in Twentynine Palms within the Southern California desert. The Naval Felony Investigative Service stated on the time it was investigating the disappearance of explosives, however declined to supply particulars.
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Related Press journalist Jacques Billard in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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