May 23, 2013
A fully automatic M-16 rifle has been recovered as a major probe expands around Camp Lejeune. Also recovered were heavy body armor that's meant to arm and protect marines.
This is military gear meant for the battlefield, not for a military hometown in eastern Carolina, but a video released by Camp Lejeune Friday shows a rifle, SAPI plates and body armor, and much, much more that was allegedly stolen from the base and then resold outside the gate in the Jacksonville community.
Investigators and the base won't name those people yet, but say more than 90 are now identified as individuals who were involved in this expanding criminal probe. The Marines say their part in the probe is trying to find out how the theft of this gear, especially a rifle and that armor, got past normally strict inventory controls and into the hands of people off the base.
The Marines expect even more individuals to be questioned, charged, and more gear to be recovered. So far, that's approaching a quarter-million dollars.
