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Colorado company to pay $1M for selling Army subpar grenade launchers

Posted at 2:34 PM, Dec 03, 2019
and last updated 2019-12-03 16:34:56-05

DENVER (AP) — A Colorado weapons manufacturer has agreed to a $1 million settlement for allegedly shipping subpar grenade launchers to the U.S Army.

U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn said Tuesday that Capco, based in Grand Junction, supplied the Army with M320 grenade launchers between July 2016 and March 2018 even though company officials knew the barrels did not meet specifications. Prosecutors say the company also knew that two shipments included launchers with firing pins made of the wrong type of steel but did not tell the Army.

Capco did not admit any liability in the settlement and released a statement Tuesday saying it has no reason to believe its products were unsafe or ineffective.

The government was alerted to the concerns about Capco’s production process by a man who was a quality engineer at the company.