http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/5/4/61532
Navy SEAL Arrested in Explosives Thefts
UPI
May 4, 2000
A Navy SEAL commando has been arrested on charges of stealing a variety of military explosives and selling them to a surplus dealer in Virginia.
The San Diego Union-Tribune said Wednesday that Petty Officer Jonathan Dean Cripe, 39, was taken into custody Tuesday at a San Diego-area naval base on charges contained in a federal indictment issued in Richmond, Va.
Cripe, a member of a SEAL unit at the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, is charged with four conspiracy counts related to the theft and transportation of government property, explosives, ammunition and firearms. He was awaiting arraignment in a federal jail in San Diego on Wednesday.
The newspaper said Cripe allegedly sold dozens of hand grenades, anti-personnel mines, C-4 plastic explosives and other ammunition to Daniel F. Robinson, a Hopewell, Va. military surplus dealer; the relationship between the two reportedly began in 1994 when Cripe, who was then assigned to the Naval Amphibious Base in Little Creek, Va., met Robinson at a gun show.
Federal authorities say Cripe at one time stole enough ordnance that he needed a rental truck to haul the cache to Robinson's home.
The alleged theft ring, which continued after Cripe was transferred to Seal Team 5 in Coronado, was discovered when a truck driven by an employee of Robinson was stopped by police for a traffic infraction in Tennessee and was found to contain stolen munitions.
A subsequent search of Robinson's home turned up about 1,000 firearms, including machine guns, as well as silencers and a night vision scope.
It was not immediately known who Robinson's alleged customers were or what his plans for the explosives were.
Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
Navy SEAL Arrested in Explosives Thefts
UPI
May 4, 2000
A Navy SEAL commando has been arrested on charges of stealing a variety of military explosives and selling them to a surplus dealer in Virginia.
The San Diego Union-Tribune said Wednesday that Petty Officer Jonathan Dean Cripe, 39, was taken into custody Tuesday at a San Diego-area naval base on charges contained in a federal indictment issued in Richmond, Va.
Cripe, a member of a SEAL unit at the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, is charged with four conspiracy counts related to the theft and transportation of government property, explosives, ammunition and firearms. He was awaiting arraignment in a federal jail in San Diego on Wednesday.
The newspaper said Cripe allegedly sold dozens of hand grenades, anti-personnel mines, C-4 plastic explosives and other ammunition to Daniel F. Robinson, a Hopewell, Va. military surplus dealer; the relationship between the two reportedly began in 1994 when Cripe, who was then assigned to the Naval Amphibious Base in Little Creek, Va., met Robinson at a gun show.
Federal authorities say Cripe at one time stole enough ordnance that he needed a rental truck to haul the cache to Robinson's home.
The alleged theft ring, which continued after Cripe was transferred to Seal Team 5 in Coronado, was discovered when a truck driven by an employee of Robinson was stopped by police for a traffic infraction in Tennessee and was found to contain stolen munitions.
A subsequent search of Robinson's home turned up about 1,000 firearms, including machine guns, as well as silencers and a night vision scope.
It was not immediately known who Robinson's alleged customers were or what his plans for the explosives were.
Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
