A 23-year-old U.S. Marine is in federal custody, accused of stealing military weapons — including a Javelin missile system — from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County and transporting them to Arizona for resale.
Corporal Andrew Paul Amarillas, a Glendale, Arizona native who served as an ammunition technical specialist at the School of Infantry West at Camp Pendleton, faces federal charges of conspiracy to commit theft and embezzlement of government property, as well as possession and sale of stolen ammunition. According to court documents, the alleged scheme unfolded between February 2022 and November 2025.
Prosecutors say Amarillas used his privileged access to restricted military weapons and ammunition to steal property and then sell it to a network of co-conspirators in Arizona, who then resold the equipment to others.
The stolen property included at least one Javelin missile system, M855A1 and M80A1 enhanced-performance rifle cartridges, and M855 rifle ammunition. Javelin missile systems are portable anti-tank weapons also designed to destroy low-flying helicopters. They are manufactured exclusively by Lockheed Martin and RTX Corp. for the U.S. military and cannot be legally possessed or sold to the public unless demilitarized. The Javelin recovered in this case was not demilitarized, prosecutors said.
In one instance, as reported by KTLA, Amarillas allegedly sent a text message to co-conspirators reading: “Just got some javs and some other ones. Have 2 launchers that [I] think you’d like, if you want to take a look tomorrow.”
Court documents show a photo of a Javelin missile system sent in a text message matched the serial number of a system Amarillas had signed out from Camp Pendleton.
Over a roughly two-week period, investigators say Amarillas stole and sold 66 cans of M855 rifle ammunition — about a third of which has been recovered. In one transaction, he allegedly offered a co-conspirator 30 cans, totaling around 25,000 rounds. AZFamily first reported that prosecutors say as many as two million rounds of M855 ammunition could still be unaccounted for.
Undercover officers bought some of the stolen ammunition from co-conspirators and traced it back to Camp Pendleton, where lot numbers were matched to items Amarillas had signed out.
“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,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.
Amarillas was arrested before he could complete an eight-week training course in Quantico, Virginia that would have deployed him to protect the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar. He appeared in a Phoenix federal courthouse on Wednesday (March 26) and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
A judge ordered him held without bail, ruling that he poses a flight risk and could potentially tamper with evidence or interfere with witnesses at Camp Pendleton.
If convicted, Amarillas could face up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge and up to 10 years on each additional substantive charge, according to prosecutors. An attorney for Amarillas did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did officials from Camp Pendleton.
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