Posted on 01/16/2015 2:02:25 PM PST by wtd
Rocket launcher recovered during investigation in Brooklyn
Updated 26 mins ago BUSHWICK -- Police say a rocket launcher was recovered in Brooklyn as part of an ongoing investigation Friday.
The weapon was seized by the NYPD from a home on Knickerbocker Avenue in the Bushwick section. Initially, authorities said the weapon was operational, but it is actually inert.
Investigators have charged 41-year-old Juan Garcia with weapons and drug possession.
Authorities say an investigation that started in the Bronx led police to Garcia's address in Brooklyn.
Along with the rocket launcher, brass knuckles and drug paraphernalia were also recovered at the apartment.
Officials say the rocket is pre-packaged and built into the weapon, so once it is fired, it cannot be reloaded. The recovered weapon had already been fired.
The launcher is a M72-LAW, a once-revolutionary light anti-tank weapon used in the military starting in the 1960s. Map My News
TO DA MOON, ALICE! TO DA MOON!
Yep, basically a plastic tube with less potential for being a weapon again than a length of PVC pipe.
“The Honeymooners”
I read that they used to throw them away in Vietnam until they found the Vietcong were making booby traps out of them.
I don't believe that the LAAW tube would withstand the pressures of a 60mm mortar round being fired. Maybe Charge 0. (only the primer, no powder bags). Also, the LAAW was 66mm, so there would be a lot of blow-bay.
In Vietnam we broke the tubes to prevent the NVA/VC from hanging them over a trail. They would put the cotter pin back in to hold the flip-down door closed, then slide in several frags with the pins pulled. The spoon was held by the inside of the LAAW tube.
A monofilament fishing line was tied to the cotter pin, then strung across the trail just above head height. That way it would snag the folded up whip antenna on the radioman. The radioman was often with the officer, forward observer or forward air controller and in the center of the patrol.
They would screw the firing assembly out of the frags and break off the delay element, then replace it. This would cause the frags to detonate immediately after the spoon flew away, right about head height of the patrol coming down the trail.
We made sure that we smashed the LAAW tubes.
For sale at gun shows for many years. LAWS tubes are just that - tubes. Demil, dewat, inert, whatever you want to call them - ain’t gonna fire.
big time latino gang presence in b-wick.
I don’t think the Empty spent LAW tube is what got him in trouble. It was the high capacity assault clips.
The question is whether it was going to become a lamp or if he thought he could manufacture a self-propelled projectile and use the tube as a delivery vehicle.
Thanks. The mortar thing must have been a miscommunication or a faulty memory on my part. I even taught the LAW block of instruction a few times and I always thought the idea of using them as mortar tubes seemed far fetched. I was in the Army in the 90’s and at that point I guess we knew we were supposed to break the tubes but had forgotten why.
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