Man on trial over illegal weapons sales says he 'didn't try to hide anything'

DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Cherie A. Thurlby, US Air Force

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- More than $1 million in weapons parts and sensitive military equipment was stolen out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and sold in a vast black market, some of it to foreign buyers through eBay, according to testimony at a federal trial this week.

The equipment — some of it re-sold to buyers in Russia, China, Mexico, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan and Ukraine — included machine gun and rifle parts, body armor, helmets, gun sights, generators, medical equipment and more.

John Roberts, of Clarksville, Tennessee, is being tried in Nashville on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to steal and sell government property, and violating the Arms Export Control Act. Six soldiers and his civilian business partner made plea deals in exchange for their testimony.

Roberts, 27, testified Wednesday that he did not know the soldiers were bringing him stolen equipment, and said the military items he bought and sold were commonly found in surplus stores, on eBay and in gun stores.

"I didn't try to hide anything," Roberts said Wednesday. "That's why I filed taxes on everything I sold on eBay. I thought it was OK."

Roberts said the soldiers told him the equipment was legally purchased from other soldiers or that the Army was discarding the equipment. He also said he didn't know that he needed to have a license to export certain items overseas.

But a former business partner, Cory Wilson, testified that he and Roberts would find soldiers selling military items through classified ads or on Facebook, and then ask them for more expensive and harder-to-find items. It was "fast easy money," Wilson said. Wilson pleaded guilty to buying and selling stolen military equipment, wire fraud and violating the Arms Export Control Act.

US Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Royce Dorman

The soldiers they targeted were often young and broke or needed money for drugs, Wilson said, so "there were a lot of items and good money to be made."

Wilson and Roberts shared a warehouse in Clarksville where they stored the equipment, but Roberts said they were not sharing funds. Roberts said the two just had a shared interest in selling things on eBay.

Wilson said Roberts set up multiple accounts to sell the equipment on eBay. They removed packaging that identified it as government property and used fake descriptions on shipping labels to avoid suspicion, he said. Under questioning from Roberts' defense attorney, David Cooper, Wilson acknowledged that he initially lied to investigators about knowing the equipment wasn't allowed to be shipped overseas.

In 2014, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency notified Roberts that it had seized a military flight helmet he tried to ship overseas. The Customs letter noted that he was required to have a license to export that item. Roberts said he didn't remember reading that paragraph. Roberts also testified that he changed descriptions and values on shipping labels to minimize the risk of customs theft in other countries and to lower import taxes for the overseas buyers.

Michael Barlow, a former Fort Campbell platoon sergeant who pleaded guilty to theft of government property and conspiracy, testified that they started small, but eventually escalated to truckloads of military equipment. He said Roberts even gave him a "Christmas list" of items he wanted the soldiers to steal in Afghanistan and bring back to the United States.

"They wanted more and more, mostly weapons parts," Barlow testified.

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Barlow said his company came home with five large cargo containers filled with equipment as the U.S. military drew down troops and closed bases in Afghanistan. Barlow said he and other soldiers sometimes got $1,000 to $2,000 per truckload.

One non-commissioned officer was even charging civilian buyers $500 to come onto Fort Campbell to select items for purchase, Barlow said.

Roberts said he was invited to come on the Fort Campbell military post to look at cargo containers belonging to Barlow's unit. Roberts said he was told the containers needed to be cleaned out of "pretty used stuff," and that he took some items. He said the transaction occurred in broad daylight in front of other soldiers.

The conspiracy allegedly continued from 2013 into 2016. Text messages between the soldiers and the civilians pointed to regular meet-ups to swap cash for ballistic plates, helmets, scopes and gun sights, according to Chief Warrant Officer 2 Sarah Perry, an agent with the Army Criminal Investigation Command.

One sergeant, identified in court as "E5 Rick," texted Roberts about going "hunting" while on duty, which meant he was breaking into cars to steal equipment, Perry testified on Tuesday.

The Army identified about five surplus stores around Fort Campbell that were selling military equipment through backdoor deals, she said.

U.S. Army / U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Asha Harris

Roberts' defense attorney David Cooper asked Perry if she could prove that the equipment offered on eBay, or that Roberts had pictures of on his phone, was stolen from Fort Campbell. Perry said that in many cases she could not, because many of the stolen items did not have serial numbers, but were similar to items reported stolen.

Another former Fort Campbell soldier, Jonathan Wolford, testified on Wednesday that he and another soldier, Dustin Nelson, took about 70 boxes of weapons parts and other gear, some of it labeled with the name of their company, to Wilson and Roberts, who paid them $1,200. Wolford plead guilty to conspiracy to steal government property.

They were both in charge of their company's arms supply room at the time, Wolford said, and started selling equipment that wasn't listed in the company's property books, including machine gun barrels, M4 rifle parts, pistol grips, buttstocks and other items typically used to repair weapons.

Asked in court why he didn't ask for more money, Wolford said, "I was making a little bit of money. I didn't pay anything for it."

A 14-member jury will hear closing arguments and begin deliberations in the case on Thursday.

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