State agents seize massive illegal arms cache during Southern California raid
AZUSA -- State agents have seized a massive cache of illegally owned guns and ammunition during a raid on a Southern California home of a man barred from owning weapons due to a mental-health based prohibition.
The raid took place in late January in Azusa and was announced on Tuesday by State Attorney General Rob Bonta.
"This arrest demonstrates exactly why the Armed and Prohibited Persons system is vital for the safety of our communities," Bonta said in a release. "In our efforts to retrieve just one gun from a prohibited individual, we found dozens of illegal weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition."
Agents from the California Department of Justice's Bureau of Firearms contacted the individual at the suspect's residence to retrieve his outstanding firearm.
After being denied entry to the residence and obtaining a search warrant, agents entered the residence and found four machine guns, seven assault weapons, a short-barreled rifle, four suppressors/silencers, six handguns, one shotgun, four rifles, 54 lower receivers/frames, 41 standard capacity magazines, 87 large-capacity magazines, and approximately 35,000 rounds of miscellaneous ammunition.
The suspect was arrested on January 25. The suspect was charged by DOJ's Criminal Law Division with multiple felonies, including unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of an assault weapon, intentional conversion of a firearm into a machine gun, possession of a machine gun, unlawful assault weapon activity, unlawful manufacture or possession of a short-barreled rifle or shotgun, unlawful possession of ammunition, and possession of a silencer.
Arraignment was February 17 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
In 2006, California became the first and only state in the nation to establish a system for tracking firearm owners who fall into a prohibited status. The APPS database works to identify individuals who lawfully procured firearms and later became prohibited from owning or possessing them.