Prison Time for 5 in 2012 Munitions Explosion at Camp Minden
Earlier today, the owner of Explo Systems Inc. was ordered to pay $34.8 million in restitution by a federal judge in Shreveport for his company's role in the massive 2012 explosion that shattered windows miles away and created a 7,000 foot mushroom cloud. David Alan Smith will also have to spend the next 4 years and 7 months in prison after being sentenced by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Foote.
Smith is not alone, 4 other high ranking officials sill have to pay $598,000 and will each receive 2-5 years in prison for mishandling the dangerous military munitions improperly. Explo was working on a $8.7 million Army contract to render artillery charges inert, but the program was handled so badly, the prosecutor called it the "nation's worst-ever dumping of military explosives."
According to US News and World Report, when the company went bankrupt in 2013 (just one year after the blast), they left behind more than 7,000 tons of potentially explosive M6 and 160 tons of clean-burning igniter - mostly stored outside.