Former Navy SEAL's Trial Focuses on Hidalgo County Fireworks Purchase
Prosecutors rested their case Jan. 8 in the trial of Gregory Vandenberg, accused of buying explosives in Hidalgo County with plans to use them against law enforcement at a Los Angeles political demonstration. The evidence presented — including store testimony, purchased mortar rounds and digital images on his phone and vehicle — raises local concerns about how routine sales and surveillance can intersect with federal investigations.
Federal prosecutors concluded their presentation in the case against Gregory Vandenberg, 49, after four days of testimony in U.S. District Court. Vandenberg is accused of purchasing more than $50 worth of fireworks at the Bowlins Continental Divide Trading Post on Interstate 10 east of Lordsburg on June 12, then transporting them toward California, where authorities say he intended to use them at the No Kings demonstration in Los Angeles on June 14.
Store staff testified that Vandenberg asked specifically for fireworks that could cause harm and disclosed plans to throw them at law enforcement. Receipts and items seized from his vehicle included six Black Cat mortar rounds, each with 60 grams of gunpowder, and 72 M-150 Salutes. FBI agents and prosecutors also showed jurors materials recovered from Vandenberg’s phone and vehicle under search warrants after his arrest early on June 13 in Tucson, an apprehension in which agents fired nonlethal rounds through the rear window of his car.
Those materials included a T-shirt bearing the emblem of the Al Qaeda flag and digital images consistent with symbols tied to the Taliban and the Islamic State group, as well as antisemitic images and messages. Defense counsel stressed that offensive or disturbing images are protected speech and urged jurors not to equate them automatically with criminal intent. The defense highlighted a photograph found among Vandenberg’s effects of a "thin blue line" flag and has emphasized his history as a former New York City police officer who also served 10 years in the U.S. Navy.
Phone calls Vandenberg placed from the Doña Ana County Detention Center were played for jurors in full. In those calls he uses coarse language, jokes about the case, and asks a friend to send family photographs after telling FBI agents he was on his way to visit friends. FBI Agent Lily Aldana testified that searches of email and phone records did not corroborate Vandenberg’s claim of traveling to visit friends.
Defense attorney Dean Clark pressed the prosecution on inconsistencies in witness accounts from the trading post, including an initial allegation that Vandenberg had said he wanted to "kill" officers, a claim store clerk Joseph Ramirez later clarified did not include the specific word "kill" on June 12. Clark also questioned whether investigators had pursued audio from the store’s security system; prosecutors relied heavily on silent surveillance images plus staff testimony.
Vandenberg faces up to a decade in prison if convicted on counts that include transporting fireworks in interstate commerce with the intent to kill, intimidate or injure, and attempting to transport prohibited fireworks to California. The defense is expected to present its case next, after which the 12-member jury will begin deliberations. For Hidalgo County residents and business owners, the case underscores the ways local retail transactions and surveillance can become central evidence in federal prosecutions and may prompt renewed attention to store safety, documentation and cooperation with law enforcement.
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