FBI officials have announced that 34-year-old former Army reservist James Walker Morales was arrested on Wednesday in connection with a Nov. 14 weapons heist at the Lincoln Stoddard Army Reserve Center in Worcester, Mass.
After the five-hour late-night weapons heist, 10 9-mm pistols and 6 M-4 rifles had gone missing.
[RELATED: FBI Says Weapons Were Stolen During Break-In at U.S. Army Reserve Armory in Mass.]
The FBI criminal complaint notes that Morales has been charged with unlawful possession of a machine gun, unlawful possession of stolen firearms, and theft of government property.
According to Mass Live, Morales is also facing unrelated charges of rape of a child and indecent assault and battery on a person under 14 stemming from an incident earlier this year. At the time of the alleged heist, Morales was reportedly wearing an electronic monitoring device in connection with those charges which investigators used to determine that he was at the Lincoln Stoddard Army Reserve Center. He allegedly removed the device the day after the heist.
Morales has a prior conviction for aggravated assault and battery on his record.
CBS Boston is reporting that investigators say that Morales, who had been to the facility two days before to pick up discharge documents, breached the armory through a kitchen window and used a saw to gain entry to the weapons vault.
FBI officials say that DNA evidence found at the scene matches Morales.
“As of right now, five of the six M-4 assault rifles and four of the ten M-11 pistols (Sig Sauer, 9MM) are back in the hands of law enforcement,” read an FBI statement cited by CBS Boston. “The FBI is working aggressively, along with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners across the region, to recover the remaining seven weapons.”
Three of the weapons were reportedly found in a bag outside of Yankee Stadium in New York City by a homeless person, who reported the discovery to police.
Morales is not known to have any links to terrorism.
