No, ICE (probably) did not purchase guided missile warheads
On September 19, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement paid $61,218 for “guided missile warheads and explosive components,” according to the Product and Service Code (PSC) included in the law. Payment history In the Federal Contracts Database.
“This award provides multiple dispersal devices in support of law enforcement operations and ICE-Office of Firearms and tactical programs,” the record’s description section states.
Popular Information Substack Mentioned This installment is in Monday’s article, which focused on the fact that ICE’s spending in the “manufacture of small arms, ammunition and accessories” product category increased 700 percent between 2024 and 2025. (Spending increased by about 636 percent, according to a WIRED analysis of the same category and time periods in which popular information was measured.) Word of the payment also circulated on Tuesday after a post on Bluesky Written by Wisconsin Democratic Senator Chris Larson has gone viral.
It turns out that concern about ICE agents planning to use the warheads was likely based on a mistake. Quantico Tactical, the company listed as a supplier of the warheads named in federal payment records, does not sell any explosive devices. (It sells a variety of firearms, switches, and gun accessories.) David Hensley, founder and CEO of tactical company Quantico, told WIRED in an email that the PSC “appears to be a mistake.”
“Quantico Tactical does not sell, and I suspect CBP ICE does not buy, guided missile warheads,” Hensley said, referring to Customs and Border Protection. He added that the rest of the payment history appears correct.
Private security companies are Assigned By a contracting office affiliated with a government agency, not a private contractor. Hensley declined to speculate on what the correct PSC to pay might be. He also declined to explain what “distraction devices” ICE purchased. However, ICE provided two more Payments to Quantico Tactical Company for “dispersal devices” in September 2024 and August 2025.
Descriptions of both pay records claim they are for training programs administered by ICE’s Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs (OFTP). Both payment records use the PSC code for “Chemical Weapons and Equipment.” Includes Items such as “flamethrowers” and “smoke generators.”
ICE “Firearms and Use of Force” booklet From 2021 it does not mention any approved use of flamethrowers, but does mention the use of “chemical munitions” such as smoke, pepper spray, and tear gas. (Indicates that their use must be approved by the Associate Administrator of the agency and OFTP.) Protective glasses And the owners of mace, Hand grenades and smoke grenades. It is unclear what ICE may have purchased.