Marine Corps Pledges Crackdown on Pilfering

Marine officials, faced with the results of an Oceanside-based government “sting” operation that detailed widespread supply thefts from Camp Pendleton, pledged Monday to clamp down on internal pilfering of military equipment.

Maj. Gen. Robert E. Haebel, commanding officer of Camp Pendleton, told a Senate Armed Services Committee task force that the joint FBI-Navy inquiry disclosed a “hemorrhage of this gear getting off the base into the hands of surplus dealers.”

The two-year probe, code-named “Operation Ripstop,” led to the conviction of 134 people two years ago for dealing in stolen military property. Haebel said that, although the sting “put a stake through the hearts” of dealers, the Marine Corps has toughened supply policies to discourage further theft.

The extent of the theft at Camp Pendleton first became apparent in late 1981 when an investigation showed that Marines stationed at the base routinely stole millions of dollars of equipment from supply depots and sold it to surplus dealers in the Oceanside area.

Dealers throughout Southern California encouraged Marines to steal equipment from the base, said Bob A. Ricks, deputy assistant director of the FBI, who testified at the Senate hearing. “Surplus dealers even suggested specific types of equipment for which there was a market,” he added.

Jerry H. Alexander, a convicted Oceanside surplus dealer, testified that the thefts had occurred as early as 1967.

The local dealers peddled the military gear to wholesalers across the country, making Camp Pendleton the center of a network of illegal trafficking that stretched from California to Virginia. At least $1 million in equipment was stolen from Camp Pendleton annually in the few years before the sting operation, Ricks said.

FBI and Naval Investigation Service agents opened a phony surplus dealership near the Marine base in May, 1983. According to FBI agent John M. Kelso Jr., who supervised the operation, the dealership was doing a brisk trade in stolen equipment within a month.

After concluding almost 60 illegal deals with surplus dealers and wholesalers in five states through the false store, government officials sprung the trap in November, 1984, seizing more than $1 million in stolen equipment from more than 20 dealerships.

Ricks said that the stolen gear was largely “field and survival equipment,” including sleeping bags, gas masks, canteens and camouflaged flak jackets. Alexander testified that “a tremendous amount of gear was brought off Camp Pendleton and sold to me and other stores in Oceanside.”

Alexander said he limited his purchases to the gear because “if I bought a field jacket, I really didn’t frankly think anybody cared.”

Alexander, who estimated that 25% of his revenue came through gear stolen from Camp Pendleton, said military officials were surprisingly brazen, sometimes delivering the material to his store in military vehicles.

Haebel said that Camp Pendleton has instituted random checks of vehicles on the base to combat the problem. In addition, he said, vehicles are no longer allowed to park near supply depots, which are fenced off.

Similarly, he said, supply policies have been strengthened throughout the Marine Corps. Equipment must now be accounted for every three months, rather than in annual reports.