{"id":242850,"date":"2026-03-30T02:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T02:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/242850\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T02:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T02:51:09","slug":"camp-pendleton-marine-arrested-for-alleged-theft-and-sale-of-javelin-missile-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/242850\/","title":{"rendered":"Camp Pendleton Marine Arrested for Alleged Theft and Sale of Javelin Missile Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A California Marine has been hauled into federal custody after authorities say he treated a military armory like a personal pawn shop, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/23\/world-news\/rocket-launchers-among-military-grade-equipment-seized-in-daring-raid-that-killed-notorious-mexican-cartel-leader-el-mencho\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stealing high-tech missile systems and selling them off<\/a> in Arizona.<\/p>\n<p>Corporal Andrew Paul Amarillas, an Arizona native who served as an ammunition technician at Camp Pendleton, is accused of making off with <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/07\/24\/us-news\/us-appeals-court-makes-decision-on-california-ammunition-background-checks-case\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a terrifying haul of restricted \u201cweapons of war,\u201d<\/a> including Javelin missile systems and military-grade ammo, according to federal court documents.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.68586387;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38933827\" width=\"405\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/23-year-old-u-s-124698617.png\" alt=\"Two Javelin missile launchers.\" class=\"wp-image-38933827\"  \/>A 23-year-old U.S. Marine formerly stationed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County is in custody after federal investigators claim he was stealing weapons of war, transporting them to Arizona and selling them.<\/p>\n<p>Federal agents have already recovered at least one of the powerful weapon systems and ammo, but some \u201c2 million rounds of M855\u201d ammunition may reportedly be unaccounted for,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.azfamily.com\/2026\/03\/28\/marine-accused-stealing-missile-system-ammunition-sell-arizona\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to AZFamily<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors allege that in one case, Amarillas offered roughly 30 cans of ammunition \u2014 about 25,000 rounds \u2014 to a co-conspirator. Over the span of about two weeks, investigators say he stole and sold 66 cans of M855 rifle ammunition, with only about a third later recovered.<\/p>\n<p>The Javelin \u2014 a \u201cfire-and-forget\u201d anti-tank missile system \u2014 is capable of punching through heavy tank armor from miles away, per Lockheed Martin, which manufactures the Javelin missile system in partnership with RTX.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.93782383;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38933826\" width=\"553\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/23-year-old-u-s-124698632.png\" alt=\"Stack of olive green ammunition cans.\" class=\"wp-image-38933826\"  \/>In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona last week, a grand jury indicted Amarillas. <\/p>\n<p>Amarillas is currently facing a laundry list of federal charges, including conspiracy to commit theft and embezzlement of government property and possession and sale of stolen ammunition, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-03-29\/marine-accused-of-stealing-selling-weapons-from-camp-pendleton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">reported the LA Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the California Morning Report newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCalifornia&#8217;s top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>He is being held without bail awaiting trial. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A California Marine has been hauled into federal custody after authorities say he treated a military armory like&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,7341,4182,1703,3586,45081],"class_list":["post-242850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-marines","tag-metro","tag-military","tag-us-news","tag-weapons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}