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.
