OCALA, FL—Senior United States District Judge Wm. Terrell Hodges has sentenced Pedro Luis Infantes (47, Ocala) and his son, Luis Rafael Infantes (21, Elizabethtown, KY), to 21 months in federal prison for theft of government property. Both pleaded guilty last year.

According to their plea agreements, on July 11, 2014, Pedro Infantes and his son unwittingly met with a confidential source who was working in cooperation with law enforcement. The father and son approached the source about finding a buyer for stolen military equipment, as they believed that the source had connections to Mexican drug trafficking organizations. The father told the source that he had been removing serial numbers from the items so that they could not be traced. Ultimately, they negotiated a sale price of $153,500 for 17 military-grade, thermal-imaging monoculars, rifle cleaning kits, and other stolen military equipment.

When Pedro Infantes later attempted to complete the transaction, he was arrested and interviewed by the FBI. He then provided false statements to agents about how he had acquired the military items and how the serial numbers on the items had been removed, telling the agents that he had purchased the equipment in that condition at assorted gun shows. In reality, Luis Infantes, an active-duty soldier for the United States Army, had stolen the equipment from the Fort Knox military installation. A subsequent search of a storage unit rented by the father revealed additional stolen military equipment, including an aviation helmet, boxes of batteries, firearm accessories, and tactical gear.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert E. Bodnar, Jr.