Nine Are Arrested in Scheme to Sell Combat Gear on EBay

Nine people, including several Marines at Camp Pendleton, have been arrested for stealing $63,000 worth of combat gear, including flak vests and helmets, meant for troops in Iraq and trying to sell it on EBay, officials in San Diego and Philadelphia announced Wednesday.

More arrests are expected.

Several civilians and a dozen Marines, all stationed at Camp Pendleton and some now serving in Iraq, are suspected of being part of the ring that stole three fragmentation vests, seven Kevlar helmets, 104 protective plates for vests, 14 outer-tactical vests, 74 M-16 magazines, two gas masks and 100,766 Iraqi dinars.

The Marines, all of whom are from the enlisted ranks, will be tried by the military.

The civilians will face charges in federal court.

By law, none of the gear is supposed to be sold outside the military, except to civilian law enforcement agencies, officials said.

“At a time when our troops in Iraq need all the body armor they can get, it is extremely troubling to see bulletproof vests destined for those troops being stolen from our military bases at home for resale to the public,” said Julie L. Myers, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Authorities declined to specify how many of the nine people arrested were Marines.

“The Marine Corps takes pride in upholding the highest moral and ethical standards,” Camp Pendleton officials said in a statement. “Thefts of any sort ... are not tolerated.”

Some of the arrests were made this week and some earlier, authorities said.

One of the nine was arrested last year and was sentenced Wednesday in Philadelphia to six months in prison in the case.

Investigators spotted Erika Jardine on the Internet offering to sell military gear.

Posing as international arms dealers, they contacted her and made several buys, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday.

Jardine, who previously lived in Vista in northern San Diego County near Camp Pendleton, allegedly placed a newspaper ad seeking to buy surplus military gear. Marines and civilians with access to such gear contacted her, and the scheme took root, officials said. She has since moved to Philadelphia.

Jardine, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to six months in prison, 540 hours of community service and a $6,500 fine for violating federal law banning the export of U.S. munitions without a license.

Jardine could have faced 20 years in prison. But U.S. Atty. Patrick Meehan recommended a lesser sentence based on her cooperation and lack of a criminal record. She did not devise the scheme “out of any sinister intent to harm the United States” but rather out of greed, Meehan said.