Former workers at area munitions plant charged with sabotage.
These two dipstick allegedly hauled off - by the trailer load - 16,000 lbs. of copper 'bullet cups' from the Lake City Munitions plant near Independence, MO.
A bullet cup is a small cup-shaped piece of copper that becomes the bullet’s metal jacket during the manufacturing process.
The volume of stolen material amounts to more than two weeks’ production of 7.62mm ammunition at Lake City, prosecutors alleged. The plant produces about 1.5 billion rounds of ammunition a year, according to Alliant Techsystems, which operates the plant for the Army.
Lake City is the military’s primary source of small-arms ammunition. The two dipsticks face 10 federal indictments for sabotage, and a possible 35 - 245 years behind bars.
Gale L. Smith, a spokeswoman for the Joint Munitions Command, which produces ammunition for all branches of the service, said the thefts were unique because of the amount of raw material taken. “Production was interrupted, but the war-fighters did get all the ammunition that was required,” Smith said.
I guess the two dipsticks didn't know there was a war going on.
