Pratchard, 38, was Feds said was running a ‘firearms and ammunition factory,’ discovered after he was kicked out of an armed border ‘militia’
Pratchard, 38, a dishonorably discharged Marine with a criminal past, had joined a civilian border patrol group in Arizona, but was ejected shortly after, for anger issues
He was asked to leave after expressing a desire to detain migrants ‘hands-on’ and use a silencer on his weapon
The group included an FBI informant, who befriended Pratchard, and learned was manufacturing guns for some of his colleagues, leading to his arrest in June 2018
FBI raided Pratchard’s home in San Diego and found an armory with equipment to build firearms and enough gunpowder to make about 9,000 bullets
As a convicted felon he was not allowed to own firearms he pled guilty
In February Pratchard pled guilty to 13 counts, including possession of a firearm by a felon, unlicensed transfer of a firearm and possessing an unregistered firearm
Former Marine and would-be border vigilante Joshua Pratchard pled guilty to illegal possession of weapons in February. On Tuesday he was sentenced to spend six years behind bars.
A former Marine who was ejected from an armed civilian border patrol group for anger issues and being overly eager to pursue migrants on the US-Mexico border has been sentenced to more than six years for manufacturing guns and ammunition at his San Diego home.
The discovery of a “firearms and ammunition factory” in his San Diego home, led to Joshua Pratchard being sentenced to 75 months in federal prison in Tucson, Ariz., on Tuesday.
As a convicted felon, Pratchard was not allowed to own firearms, least ways, manufacture and distribute weapons.
Prosecutors said the 38-year-old would-be vigilante drove from California in January 2018 to work with an armed group that patrols the border near Arivaca, Arizona, for illegal border crossings.
Prosecutors say Pratchard, who was a convicted felon, had an armory at his San Diego home stocked with gun making equipment along with enough gunpowder to make 9,000 rounds of ammo
Pratchard was asked to leave Arizona Border Recon after just a few days for allegedly wanting to physically detain migrants in a manner he described as ‘hands-on,’ confront drug traffickers known colloquially as ‘rip crews’ and use a silencer on his weapon, reported Arizona Daily Star.
An FBI agent was using a confidential source who reported that Pratchard “became visibly angry when he was told he could not have a silencer on his weapon” while working with Arizona Border Recon, the agent wrote.
“He also became angry when he learned he could not go ‘hands on’ with illegal aliens crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.”
The weapon is part of the haul federal agents seized from Pratchard’s home, four of which he had built himself
Joshua Pratchard bragged about the ‘firearms and ammunition factory’ at his residence to an FBI informant he met last year at the Arizona Border Recon patrol group, prosecutors said
When told by the leader of the group, Tim Foley, that he could not engage migrants that way, Pratchard grew ‘visibly angry,’ which drew the attention of an FBI informant who was in attendance at that meeting, according to court records. Foley previously denied that his group is a ‘militia’ and insisted that its actions are lawful.
The FBI informant befriended the disgruntled would-be vigilante and the two went on several reconnaissance missions along the border in the spring of 2018 after Pratchard was ejected from Foley’s group for bringing a gun equipped with a silencer.
During one of Pratchard and the informant’s independent patrols, the former Marine allegedly bragged that he had an armory set up at home where he had been building firearms for friends and family.
In one recorded conversation, Pratchard said he was excited at the chance to run into a rip crew, as bandits who steal drug loads in the desert are known.
His desire to physically detain migrants and engage with rip crews, as well as use a silencer, went against the rules of Arizona Border Recon, and he was kicked out after only a few days, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
The former Marine told the court on Tuesday he had become obsessed with making weapons and ammo
He confided in his informant that he engraved his homemade guns with ‘fake serial numbers’ comprised of his wife and toddler son’s dates of birth
He even engraved his homemade guns with fake serial numbers comprised of his wife and toddler son’s dates of birth, according to the prosecution.
Pratchard was arrested outside the Casino Del Sol in Tucson in June 2018 with a .45-caliber pistol, a short-barreled rifle, another rifle and 300 rounds of ammunition in his truck.
When federal agents raided his home in San Diego, they discovered what prosecutors described as a ‘firearms and ammunition factory’ stocked with eight guns – four of them registered to the man’s wife – pieces of equipment used to build firearms and enough gunpowder to make about 9,000 bullets, reported The Washington Post.
In February, Pratchard pleaded guilty to 13 counts, including possession of a firearm by a felon, unlicensed transfer of a firearm and possessing an unregistered firearm.
His defense argued that the former Marine had struggled with untreated mental illness for most of his life and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Since his arrest, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
The discovery of a “firearms and ammunition factory” in his San Diego home, led to Joshua Pratchard being sentenced to 75 months in federal prison in Tucson, Ariz., on Tuesday. As a convicted felon, Pratchard was not allowed to own firearms
In February Pratchard pled guilty to 13 counts, including possession of a firearm by a felon, unlicensed transfer of a firearm and possessing an unregistered firearm
Federal prosecutors detailed what they described as the defendant’s ‘long history of violence and unresolved anger.’
He enlisted in the Marine Corps as a teenager but was dishonorably discharged less than three years later after being convicted of selling ecstasy pills.
In 2007, he was arrested for stomping on a man’s head during a bar brawl, which resulted in a felony assault conviction.
In 2014, Pratchard’s wife called the police on him, claiming that he verbally threatened to hurt her and then threw her on the bed. The woman ultimately chose not to press charges against her husband and the case was dismissed.
When given a chance to speak during his sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Pratchard admitted that he ‘made a really stupid decision.’
The aspiring border vigilante explained that he had become so engrossed in manufacturing his own weapons that the pursuit became his ‘idol.’
‘I don’t want anything to do with guns anymore,’ he said. ‘They are the bane of my existence.’
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