US contractor pleads guilty to forging paperwork in Kandahar theft ring

A U.S. military contractor who was part of a crime ring that stole more than $300,000-worth of vehicles, generators and other goods from Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan, has pleaded guilty to federal fraud and theft charges, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Varita V. Quincy, 35, of Snellville, Ga., who admitted to conspiring with another American contractor, Larry J. Green of Chesapeake, Va., to steal military property and sell the goods locally, pleaded guilty to the charges Tuesday in a U.S. district court, the statement said.

Quincy, a supervisor at an office that issued security badges, drafted false paperwork that allowed unvetted Afghan workers to enter the base to pick up stolen goods, court documents filed in the Justice Department’s Eastern District of Virginia said. Green selected which items could be sold to locals off the base, and then split the proceeds from the sales with Quincy, a court document said. Among the stolen items were a Toyota Hilux pickup truck, a white Toyota van, vehicle parts, three generators and a refrigerator.

Green pleaded guilty in July.

The pair discussed how to evade detection by the military police by transferring stolen goods during lunchtime, when most troops were eating, according to text messages obtained by investigators.

Quincy also told Green how to forge paperwork himself, how to remove stickers and other markings from stolen property, and which places on base were not monitored by security cameras, a criminal complaint said.

“The false documents she created, or directed others to create, were used to deceive security officers and gate guards and thereby compromised the security and safety of the military installation,” the government’s statement said Tuesday.

Investigators included personnel from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the 939th Military Police Detachment of the Indiana Army National Guard and the Army Criminal Investigation Command.

The thefts took place in 2015. Sentencing has been set for late February.