Operation Lone Star Squad Leader Busted for Selling Official-Issue Body Armor
Texas National Guard Sgt. Carl Lee James Roy III was arrested after putting his gear up for sale on Facebook.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas
An Army National Guard sergeant sent to the U.S-Mexico border to participate in Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s much-maligned Operation Lone Star has been arrested by the feds for selling off pieces of protective gear he was issued for the initiative. Carl Lee James Roy III, a 26-year-old squad leader in the initiative—which has been described as a “hasty” piece of anti-immigration “theater” and largely considered an abject failure—advertised the ceramic plates from his official-issue body armor for sale on Facebook Marketplace for $1,000, according to a criminal complaint first obtained by The Daily Beast. On Monday, Roy, who was stationed for the mission in Del Rio, was contacted by a buyer, the complaint states. But, unfortunately for Roy, the “buyer” was a special agent from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division. Roy was arrested Aug. 31, after completing the transaction in a Walmart parking lot, on one count of theft of public property. His court-appointed lawyer, Sharon Marie Hernandez-Lopez, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas
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