Woman Fences Stolen Goods to Pay for Health Insurance
The San Diego Union-Tribune
February 23, 2006
By Steve Liewer
STAFF WRITER
February 23, 2006
A Vista woman was sentenced to prison yesterday for buying from Camp Pendleton Marines stolen body armor meant for Iraq-bound troops, then selling it to undercover agents posing as foreign arms dealers.
Erika Jardine, 47, was arrested in November 2004. Jardine pleaded guilty a year later in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia to charges of violating the Arms Control Export Act and selling stolen U.S. property, said Dean Boyd, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
During her sentencing hearing yesterday, Jardine tearfully apologized to the government and to U.S. District Judge Michael M. Baylson. Jardine said she sold the vests to make money to buy health insurance that her multiple jobs, including one as a licensed real estate agent, did not provide.
As part of her plea agreement, she has helped investigators gather evidence against 15 other people, including 12 Marines and three civilians, according to court documents. Besides the six-month prison sentence, Jardine must spend three years on probation, perform 750 hours of community service and pay a $6,500 fine.
Boyd said eight of the suspects were arrested in the past year at Camp Pendleton. He said he didn’t know the Marines’ names and ranks or the status of their cases.
Camp Pendleton’s public affairs office did not answer questions about the cases, but it issued a brief statement acknowledging that military authorities are investigating them.
“Evidence does not indicate that several Camp Pendleton Marines were part of a ring or organization that stole and resold ballistic vests and other controlled U.S. military items,” the statement said. “Rather, current evidence indicates that these were individual cases. In addition, many of the cases . . . were prosecuted months ago and resulted in courts-martial.”
Jardine worked several full-and part-time jobs in the Vista area, according to a court document. She experienced financial distress after suffering health problems that included thyroid, ulcer and knee troubles.
“She was apparently badly in need of money,” Boyd said.
In late spring 2004, Jardine placed an ad in Camp Pendleton’s newspaper offering to buy surplus military gear, Boyd said.
It was a time when body armor, including protective inserts called SAPI plates, were in short supply. Several Marines offered to sell Jardine the ones they had been issued for use in Iraq, Boyd said. Then in June, Jardine put them up for sale on the online auction site eBay.
A man named “Patrick” from eastern Pennsylvania won the auction.
He actually was a government agent posing as an arms dealer, according to a court document. He contacted Jardine and suggested in an e-mail that they do business off of eBay because “the U.S. government does not look favorably on shipping these out of the country and the less attention we draw to our deals the better,” a court document said.
During the next several months, Jardine shipped several sets of SAPI plates to “Patrick” in Austria and Pennsylvania with the understanding that some of them would be shipped to Lithuania, court documents said. They frequently talked about the illegality of the shipments, and Jardine wrote on customs forms that they were ceramic plates or picture frames.
“Clearly, when she began selling these on eBay to us, she knew it was illegal,” Boyd said.
After her arrest, Jardine helped investigators for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service by placing fake newspaper ads and negotiating more sales. Several suspects remain at large, Boyd said, and some of the Marines who allegedly sold her goods are serving in Iraq.
Jardine has helped authorities recover other apparently stolen military goods, including 104 SAPI plates, 14 vests, seven Kevlar helmets and 74 M-16 rifle magazines.
She took an active role in her community and baby-sat neighborhood children in her home, a court document said. Several neighbors wrote letters to the court describing her as hard-working, conscientious and helpful.
At yesterday’s sentencing, the judge told Jardine that despite her cooperation and lack of a criminal record, she still deserved prison because she knew what she did was wrong.
“This was a serious crime that took SAPIs away from American soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Schulman.
Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service contributed to this report.