Originally posted by Jackal1
I don`t have any problem readin, except for "thim gret big werds".
It makes no difference what he was charged or convicted for. It was a done deal before the wheels even turned on the Ninjamobile.
It was whatever it took to get the FFL and to try to gain some brownies in the public eye. (which usualy backlashs on them)
They would have charged him with numerous counts of jaywalking, spitting on the sidewalk or felony wearing stripes with plaids. whatever it took.
And all this with Federal support to remove FFLs as has been done in thousands of cases.
Ok I find this so amusing its time to let you in on what kind of guy this "curator" is... lol
HICKORY -- Government agents hauled away truckloads of high-powered weapons and explosives Friday from five sites in North Carolina, and a top official said he could not rule out the possibility that anti-government extremists were connected to the theft of military ordnance from Camp Lejeune.
The sheer volume of machine guns, grenade launchers and enormously powerful plastic explosives that were recovered Friday took even the investigators aback, and they suggested that more arrests might still be made in the case.
"You could outfit a small army with what we've recovered," said Mark Logan, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Charlotte. "These are weapons that are designed for no other reason than to kill people. And we're talking mass destruction."
Some of the weapons had been stolen from Camp Lejeune, the Marine base on the North Carolina coast. Six Marines, including four from Camp Lejeune, were arrested Thursday and accused of the theft, purchase and sale of stolen military equipment. Eight civilians have also been arrested, including one who had recently been released from a federal prison after serving a term for firearms violations.
Officials said their investigation has taken them throughout the Southeast, into West Virginia and up to Massachusetts.
"The investigation has really just begun," said Earl Woodham, a spokesman for the ATF. "It's like we just hit the base of an oak tree, and if we follow it up, we may find that it branches out very wide. There are numerous U-Hauls taking weapons away from the sites."
Until Thursday, agents of the ATF and FBI had worked undercover with Marine investigators to find out where stolen weapons and explosives from Camp Lejeune were ending up. Many of the weapons recovered Friday were from Camp Lejeune, investigators said, but a large number had never belonged to the military.
Among the items recovered from two sites in Boone and others in Hickory, Monroe and Raeford were shoulder-launched rocket warheads, grenade launchers, land mines and high-quality, high-powered, fully automatic machine guns.
Logan said greed probably drove the sales of the illegal weapons. But, he added, "Somebody wanted them for something. At some point, money stops changing hands and somebody holds onto the weapons."
He said investigators have uncovered no ties to militia groups or other anti-government extremists, "But we have to look into that, especially when these kinds of weapons are involved. A civilian has no use for these things."
For example, he said, agents recovered an unknown number of M-79 grenade launchers. Resembling a wide-barreled rifle, the M-79 can hurl a grenade more than 1,000 yards and kill anyone in a 15-foot radius. Several blocks of C-4 plastic explosive, each the size of two king-size candy bars stacked one on the other, were also recovered. C-4 has twice the explosive capability of dynamite and is one of the most powerful demolition explosives available to the military.
Court papers filed in Charlotte indicate that the investigation, dubbed Operation Longfuse, began about March 1996. With the help of an unidentified informant, agents discovered that Gregory Roland Pruess, 35, of Boone, had bought and was distributing military explosives and weapons, according to the court papers.
Pruess, who had been doing business in 1994 under the name of the North Carolina Military Museum in Blowing Rock, pleaded guilty in 1996 to unlawfully transferring firearms and weapons. He served a year in prison.
The court papers said that after government agents found out that Pruess was again involved with illegal firearms, they went under cover to investigate him. They approached Pruess, the documents said, and bought 16 blocks of C-4 plastic explosive from him as well as several high-powered machine guns, anti-personnel land mines, rocket warheads and other weapons.
In one instance, agents accompanied Pruess to a storage garage in Abington, Va., where they gathered many of the weapons, according to the court papers, and other weapons were dealt from a storage garage in Boone.
Three of the civilians arrested have ties to the legal firearms industry. Harold Gustave Coach, 49, of Raeford, owns Coach and Sons Military Surplus in Raeford; Alton Laverne Sharpe Jr., 34, of Mount Pleasant, is manager of Classic Arms in Indian Trail.
Another of the civilians arrested, Patrick Wayne Gauldin, 27, lives with his wife and school-age daughter in a subdivision called Lawyer Station in Unionville, on the outskirts of Monroe.
Many of Gauldin's neighbors said they did not know him but knew he had an interest in guns. He carried a lot of them in his truck, one neighbor said.
Employees at two other gun shops in Monroe, D&L Products and Gunworks, said they believe Gauldin once worked at American Shooters Emporium, which closed eight to 10 months ago. Unlike the other gun shops, which specialize in hunting rifles and the like, the emporium was known as the place where people could go for legal assault weapons, including semi-automatics and "street sweepers."
Authorities at Camp Lejeune said Friday that an undercover investigation began after base authorities discovered that explosives might be missing and contacted the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Material missing from the marine base included ammunition for small weapons, the C-4 explosives, detonation cord and hand grenades, said Neill R. Robins, special agent in charge of the NCIS at Camp Lejeune. He declined to say how much material was missing or recovered.
Robins said investigators think that all the material from the base has been recovered.
"It would be inappropriate right now to speak of the things recovered in other areas," he said. "But the media has reported all kinds of firearms and what have you. They did not come off Camp Lejeune. None of them at this time have been traced to Camp Lejeune."
Joanne Morley, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Charlotte, said a portion of the recovered weapons came from Camp Lejeune, but she could not say what percentage belonged to the military.
"Some of the weapons the civilians had came from some of the Marines," she said. "That much is clear."
Col. Joseph C. Yannessa, the base's assistant chief of staff for safety, said explosives apparently came from training and exercises "as a result of poor inventory control."
"We are continually re-emphasizing inventory control," he said. "However, when some people go bad, all the best controls in the world don't necessarily find bad people."
Robins said the arrested Marines knew one another from school and from working together in units that handle explosives, but he said there was no indication that the Marines were working as a ring or part of an organized group.
"Did these people work in a group to do this? The answer is no," he said. "Did they know one another? Yes. I believe they took advantage of opportunities they were presented with and made bad decisions taking advantage of those opportunities."
Three of the Marines being held until a magistrate's hearing next week saw combat in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, according to military records released Friday. Their service in the Marines ranged from 10 to 23 years, and they varied in rank from sergeant to captain.
One of the six Marines detained - Master Gunnery Sgt. Alfred A. Gerich, 41, of McHenry, Ill. - was released and returned to his unit, Yannessa told The Associated Press.
Gerich was found not to be a flight risk, but may be charged later, officials said. None of the Marines has been formally charged.
Selling stolen military C-4, Rocket warheads, mines, and machine guns. Yeah I am sure he was so innocent the first time. Well doesnt matter now he is screwed. lol
