Delta Force, stolen grenades and drones: Vet accused of military theft

A decorated Delta Force veteran is again facing charges of theft of grenades, drones and other military equipment.

Retired Master Sgt. Parker Allen Gibson, 44, of Harnett County, was arrested March 12 after a federal grand jury indicted him Feb. 23.

The new charges were first reported by North Carolina online news outlet, The Assembly, on March 19.

Gibson is charged with:

• Receiving, concealing and retaining stolen military property with a value exceeding $1,000 between June 2016 and June 22, 2022.

• Stealing grenades, which moved in interstate and foreign commerce, between January 2020 and June 2, 2020.

• Transporting, concealing and storing grenades between January 2020 and June 22, 2022.

• Receiving a grenade not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record between January 2020 and June 22, 2022.

• Possessing and removing classified documents without authority in an unauthorized location between January 2020 and June 2, 2020, when he was still in the Army.

Similar dismissed complaint

According to a transcript from a preliminary hearing on Aug. 1, 2022, at the conclusion of the testimony, federal Judge Robert Numbers II dismissed a criminal complaint with similar accusations against Gibson after the defense argued that Gibson no longer had access to the military equipment when it was found in a Cameron storage locker by his wife earlier in 2022.

“There's not probable cause for this action going forward,” Numbers said in 2022.

The judge said there were “substantial questions about who put the items in the storage unit and when they arrived there,” because others had access to the unit.

During the August 2022 proceeding, Gibson’s attorney identified Gibson as a former member of Delta Force, according to the transcript. He medically retired from the Army in August 2021.

The recipient of two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart, Gibson was the chief intel sergeant assigned to the Delta Force unit and in charge of unmanned aerial systems and drones, according to the transcript

A special agent with the Army Criminal Investigation Division, testified at the August 2022 hearing that a former member of Gibson’s unit reported the matter to authorities in June 2022 after Gibson's wife contacted him saying she believed the equipment was stolen.

The special agent said she told authorities that in March 2021, she rented the storage unit at her husband’s request because he was having a dispute with his business partner for an aerial photography business and he wanted to move his business property to it.

She told authorities that after she rented the unit, she put a lock on it and gave her husband the key before she deployed to Jordan for about three months, the transcript stated.

The transcript stated that Gibson’s wife is an intelligence warrant officer under the Joint Special Operations Command based at Fort Liberty. The married couple served under different units.

Gibson’s wife told authorities she didn’t return to the storage unit until May 2022 when her marriage started to deteriorate.

The special agent said that when Gibson’s wife entered the unit after using bolt cutters to cut the lock, she noticed two military-sized wall lockers and found a “military drone in the form of a helicopter,” weapon magazines with standard Army green-tip ammunition, more ammunition of various calibers, unmanned aerial systems and memorabilia from her husband’s unit.

The transcript stated that an affidavit in the criminal complaint identified two Puma drones with wings that span about 8 feet and valued at $250,000 each were among the items, along with 20 other unmanned aerial systems, two classified maps and more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition.

The special agent told the court that the grenades found were live grenades last accounted for by the Army in August 2020 while on deployment.

The special agent said that after Gibson's arrest, more ammunition was recovered during a search of his Bunnlevel home.

Defense

During questioning by Gibson’s attorney, the special agent said investigators had no witnesses who saw Gibson take the items from the Delta Force compound and place them in the storage unit.

Gibson’s attorney provided the court with records that showed an unknown person also entered the storage unit three times in May 2022 and four times in June 2022, before authorities searched it June 22, 2022.

Gibson’s father, Roger Gibson, of Florida, testified that around the time the storage unit was last accessed, his son was in Florida for his daughter's gymnastics tournament and sent a time-stamped photo on the plane the next day.

The special agent said that while the unit Gibson was formerly associated with has records of having the same grenades that were found in the storage unit, Gibson was no longer with the Delta Force unit.

The special agent said Gibson was last assigned to the Warrior Transition Battalion at then-Fort Bragg, before medically retiring.

Gibson’s attorney provided the court with records that show her client’s last deployment date was in 2016.

Gibson’s attorney asked if Gibson’s wife had access to the Joint Special Operations Command's compound. The special agent said the Joint Special Operations Command she was assigned to is not “co-located” with her husband’s former unit but is at the same compound.

The special agent said Gibson’s wife acknowledged there was more than a month's delay from the time she found the items until it was reported to authorities in June 2022. A few weeks later she reached out to a colleague, who was Gibson’s former unit member, who contacted authorities.

The special agent said Gibson’s wife would not have access to the stolen equipment but the former unit member she contacted would have.

Closing arguments

During closing arguments at the 2022 hearing, federal prosecutor Bradford DeVoe said that all of the items found in the storage unit came from Gibson’s military background, not his wife’s.

DeVoe said that while Gibson didn’t have direct access to the items when they were found, he could have potentially gotten them “through others that would have been able to provide him access.”

He said the defense’s “conspiracy,” that Gibson’s wife had something to do with the items being in the storage unit would have meant “that she would have been accumulating these items, just preparing to get him into trouble,” which authorities did not think was “a reasonable activity in this particular case.”

Gibson’s attorney, Elisa Salmon, said there was no evidence of when the items went into the storage unit, and there was no evidence her client attempted to sell the items.

Salmon said her client was never listed as an authorized person to access the storage unit.

She said the Joint Special Operations Command compound is supposed to be one of the most secure in the world, but federal authorities claim that Gibson “somehow how made it off,’ of the compound with two large drones, despite being in a medical unit since 2019,

“A reasonable person would not find probable cause on these facts,” she said.

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Former Delta Force soldier accused of stealing military equipment