An ammunition technician specialist at the School of Infantry West stationed at Camp Pendleton, California, has been federally indicted for stealing Javelin Missile Systems, AT4 antitank weapons and ammunition “so lethal that the public cannot legally possess it,” the District Court of Arizona charges.
Andrew Paul Amarillas, a 23-year-old corporal in the Marine Corps, was stationed at Camp Pendleton from February 2022 through January 2026, during which he allegedly embezzled and stole U.S. military property and ammunition with the intent to resell them in Arizona, the district attorney charges.
According to a March 24, 2026, court filing, Amarillas has been charged with several federal crimes to the theft and possession of government property.
Amarillas has been an active-duty Marine since 2021, joining shortly after he graduated from high school in Glendale, Arizona.
“Defendant is an active-duty U.S. Marine. But instead of faithfully serving his country, he has been stealing weapons and ammunition from the military base at which he was stationed for several years. … The full extent of how much Defendant stole, to whom he all sold it, and how it has been used is not yet known—though law enforcement is working feverishly to find out,” the Detention Memorandum reads.
Some — but not all — of the stolen material has been recovered.
Investigators say that Amarillas transported the stolen weapons and ammunition back to his home state, where he sold them to a network of co-conspirators who in turn resold the military-grade weaponry.
The court documents include text messages sent between Amarillas and his unnamed co-conspirators, with prosecutors noting that when police closed in on the Marine he “destroyed his phone (telling his parents he accidentally drove over it).”
In June 2025, after exchanging text messages about whom “‘Andrew’ was going to leave ‘that stuff with,’” two co-conspirators sent texts with an image of a rifle with a scope sitting on the top of a large, plastic crate, as well as a rifle with a scope sitting on top of a bed and two Javelin Missile Systems.
One of the unidentified co-conspirators noted, “Scope is on ready to go with ammo,” according to court documents.
Two months later, Amarillas texted: “Just [got] some javs and some other ones. [I] have 2 launchers that [I] think you’d like, if you want to take a look tomorrow.”
The Javelin Missile System, known as a “fire-and-forget” missile, is an anti-tank guided munition that can be carried and launched by a single person and used against a wide array of targets, including armored vehicles, bunkers and caves, according to Raytheon.
The weapons system is manufactured exclusively by Lockheed Martin and RTX Corp for the U.S. military and cannot be legally possessed or sold to members of the public unless explicitly demilitarized. According to prosecutors, the Javelin recovered in this case was not demilitarized — and its serial number matched one that Amarillas had signed out from the School of Infantry West, court documents show.
Prosecutors further allege that Amarillas sold M855A1 and M80A1 ammunition, as well as M855 “enhanced performance” rifle cartridges manufactured by Olin Winchester. While M855 rifle cartridges can be sold to the public, the Olin Winchester M855 cartridges sold to the U.S. military are packaged differently and cannot be resold or possessed by civilians.
November 2025 text messages show that Amarillas offered 30 cans of M855 ammunition, explaining to the co-conspirator that that meant 25,000 rounds.
Over the subsequent two weeks, the Marine stole 66 boxes of the rifle ammunition, with only a third being recovered — some purchased by undercover police officers, while others were seized.
Law enforcement traced the lot number on these cans from the Tooele Army Depot to the Ammo Supply Point at Camp Pendleton, according to court documents.
Amarillas was scheduled to leave Camp Pendleton for an eight-week training course in Quantico, Virginia, from January to March 2026, where upon completion, the Marine was set to deploy to the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar.
Law enforcement intercepted and arrested Amarillas before he completed that training.
On March 26, Amarillas pleaded not guilty to the charges in a Phoenix federal courthouse. If convicted, he faces up to five years imprisonment for a conspiracy charge and 10 years imprisonment for each of his substantive charges, according to the court documents.
Claire Barrett is an editor and military history correspondent for Military Times. She is also a World War II researcher with an unparalleled affinity for Sir Winston Churchill and Michigan football.
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