Explo Systems, managers indicted in explosives case

A Louisiana company that recycles explosives and six executives were indicted Monday in an investigation into the improper storage of millions of pounds of military propellant, a discovery that led a small town to evacuate.

Explo Systems and six of its owners and managers face 10 felony charges each in a sealed indictment handed down by a grand jury, Webster Parish District Attorney Schuyler Marvin said. The employees have not been identified because the indictment is still sealed.

Explo Systems had a multimillion-dollar military contract to dismantle propelling charges used to fire artillery rounds. The company operated on space leased at Camp Minden, a Louisiana National Guard installation in northwest Louisiana. An explosion last October led authorities to look more closely at Explo and its facility.

An investigator discovered millions of pounds of an improperly stored propellant called M6, leading to the evacuation of nearby Doyline, the town known as the backdrop for the TV series "True Blood."

Louisiana State Police officials stripped Explo Systems of its explosives license on May 20, but the company temporarily won it back in state court Friday.

"The allegedly improperly stored materials are not explosive, nor are they within the jurisdiction of the" state police, the company wrote in its lawsuit against the state.

A hearing is set for June 17.

The indictment consists of five charges apiece relating to explosives storage, and five conspiracy charges.

Marvin said he had sent letters to the employees, including two who live outside Louisiana, asking that they turn themselves in. He said he didn't consider the people to be flight risks.

Authorities said the M6 should have been stored in certified magazines - sometimes called bunkers - but some of it was found in boxes stacked in buildings, packed into long corridors that connect the buildings or "hidden" among trees outside. Some of the containers were spilling open, authorities said.

Authorities feared any ignition - like a brush fire or lightning - could set off a massive chain reaction that would race through the corridors and blow up multiple buildings, threatening Doyline. Its 800 residents were put under a voluntary evacuation order for several days in December.

State police monitored the movement of the material, which took months as some of it was sold to other companies and the Guard provided additional space at the installation.

More 10 million pounds of the material was eventually stored properly and Explo relinquished its keys to the magazines at the installation. Also, state police said, about 100,000 pounds of flammable solid material and 130,000 pounds of Tritonal were moved to proper storage locations.

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