Ballistic vests sold to Cambodia

Fed­er­al in­vest­ig­at­ive re­cords show that U.S. Cus­toms Ser­vice agents learned in 2002 that the Los Angeles County Sher­iff’s De­part­ment used the City of Gardena to fun­nel hun­dreds of bul­let-proof vests to Cam­bod­i­an po­lice. At the time, Un­der­sh­er­iff Paul Tana­ka was a Gardena coun­cil­man; today, he serves as the city’s may­or. Fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies re­leased the re­cords to The Times un­der the Free­dom of In­form­a­tion Act after mak­ing nu­mer­ous re­dac­tions.