6,500 Pounds Of Fireworks Seized From Compton Home
LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) — Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies have seized a cache of 6,500 pounds of illegal fireworks, a gun stolen from a police officer and approximately $30,000 in cash at a home in Compton.
Sheriff's officials said in a release that deputies executed a search warrant Tuesday at a home in the 1100 block of East Pine Street, where they found a detached garage that had been converted into a fireworks stand with skyrockets, mortars and assorted pyrotechnics and explosives. The fireworks, which were being sold illegally, are valued at $15,000.
They also found a gun that was reported stolen from a Long Beach police officer.
"Storing large amounts of fireworks in a residential area is extremely dangerous," Captain Diane Walker of the LASD Compton Sheriff's Station said in a statement. "One spark could have ignited thousands of pounds of gunpowder-filled dangerous fireworks. This could have been devastating and deadly for a neighborhood of innocent people."
Two men were arrested and now face charges of possessing of an explosive device, selling fireworks without a permit, and receiving stolen property.
Both were booked into the sheriff's Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood. Their names were not released.
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