Albuquerque, New Mexico (Tribune News Service)-The U.S. Army is investigating at least one senior civilian official at the White Sands Missile Range and an El Paso contractor for allegedly stealing $2 million worth of nickel ball bearings- -These bearings weigh up to 230,000 pounds-according to a recent unsealed federal search warrant for explosives research in the area.

The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command applied for and obtained an arrest warrant earlier this month, stating that investigators may have reason to believe that Randolph Brady, former director of White Sands, and Mario Escobedo, owner of EGL Construction, and others may conspire to steal the government property. A search warrant report showed that federal authorities seized more than $1 million from bank accounts held in the name of Escobedo on Monday. Neither person has been charged.

According to a search warrant application filed with the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, a source disclosed to an Army investigator in March that metal had been stolen from a missile range in southern New Mexico.

According to the document, an investigation found that Brady, then a senior White Sands official, hired Escobedo to remove four storage tanks containing 3/8-inch nickel ball bearings from the large explosion heat simulator.

According to the White Sands website, the facility has a concrete "impact tube" that can be used to assess the response of items to simulated nuclear or conventional explosions.

The document identified Brady as the head of the Army Test and Evaluation Command. His LinkedIn account states that he is the director of the Survival, Vulnerability and Assessment Bureau. A spokesperson for the White Sands Missile Range said Brady no longer works there.

Attempts to contact Brady were unsuccessful.

According to the search warrant, Escobedo hired a company in Albuquerque, Mountain States Crane and Maddy Freight Service in Horizon City, Texas, to dismantle and transport four tanks on March 19 and 20. Each tank is equipped with about 58,000 pounds of ball bearings. Therefore, the total load weighs about 232,000 pounds, which is equivalent to the weight of an ordinary blue whale.

The ball bearings are taken to the recycling plant Acme Iron & Metal in the North Valley of Albuquerque.

"First of all, it was not stolen," Escobedo said in a brief telephone interview with The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. "And it's not worth $2 million."

He posed other questions to his lawyer and could not be reached for comment.

According to court documents, in an interview with Army investigators, Escobedo confirmed that Brady had instructed to remove the ball bearings, and Acme Iron & Metal sent him a $1 million wire transfer after the tank was delivered.

According to the search warrant affidavit, a contract to remove nickel ball bearings from the series has never been solicited or awarded.

The court documents stated that between March 31 and June 16, Acme Iron & Metal made seven wire transfers to Escobedo's bank account for a total of 1.4 million U.S. dollars. On June 30, records showed that the account had a balance of 1.1 million U.S. dollars. A search warrant submitted to the District Court showed that on August 9, federal authorities seized slightly more than $1 million in funds from Escobedo's account.

The owners of Acme Iron & Metal and Mountain States Crane could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

The boss of Maddy Freight Service, who declined to be named, said in a telephone interview that he was hired to transfer materials and his company did the job. He said that he did not accept any interviews with the authorities, and the interview with The Wall Street Journal was the first time he heard that someone suspected this project. He refused to disclose who hired him.

"I was just hired to carry it. They provided the correct paperwork and we continued the project," he said. "I provided the trucks, they loaded them and took us to the place where we had to deliver them, we delivered it according to their requirements, and they paid me."

Officials at White Sands declined to comment.

"Due to the ongoing investigation, WSMR is unable to comment," Scott Stearns, a spokesman for the missile range, said in an email. "We can confirm that Randy Brady is no longer employed at the White Sands Missile Range or Army Test and Evaluation Command."

(c) 2021 Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, New Mexico)

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