Lot of metals
out there on military installations. I'm sorry to see Acme Iron & Metal in Albuquerque is involved, maybe as an innocent party. They have great graffiti murals there:
The U.S. Army is investigating a former high-ranking civilian official at White Sands Missile Range and an El Paso contractor for allegedly stealing $2 million worth of nickel ball bearings – that’s a whopping 230,000 pounds of them – used in explosives research at the range, according to a recently unsealed federal search warrant.
The U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Command earlier this month applied for and was granted the warrant, which states investigators have probable cause to believe that Randolph Brady, a former director at White Sands, and Mario Escobedo, the owner of EGL Construction, and possibly others conspired to steal government property. A search warrant return shows that federal authorities on Monday seized more than $1 million from a bank account held in the name of Escobedo’s business. No charges have been filed against either man.
...According to the warrant, Escobedo hired Mountain States Crane, an Albuquerque business, and Maddy Freight Service, a Horizon City, Texas, company, to remove and transport on March 19 and 20 the four tanks, which each contained about 58,000 pounds of ball bearings. So the entire load combined to weigh about 232,000 pounds, which is comparable to the weight of an average blue whale.
The ball bearings were taken to Acme Iron & Metal, a recycling plant in Albuquerque’s North Valley.
...The court documents said that in an interview with an Army investigator, Escobedo confirmed that Brady directed the removal of the ball bearings and that Acme Iron & Metal sent him wire transfers for $1 million after the tanks were delivered.
No contracts were ever solicited or awarded for removing nickel ball bearings from the range, according to the search warrant affidavit.
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