On fear of producing unregulated weapons and automatic rifle, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department has detained two teenagers and a 45-year-old man.
After a months-long research, deputies arrested two 17-year-olds on Nov. 27 in Thousand Oaks and served a warrant to search their vehicles and a home in the Santa Rosa Valley, according to the coroner’s office. As part of the operation, police seized 19 improper or unjustly possessed firearms as well as related parts and a” major amount” of munitions, the office said in a Friday news release.
Information was found linking a sibling of the two teenagers, a 45-year-old man, to many guns recovered, and he was even arrested. The three defendants ‘ names were kept secret.
There is no current evidence of a broader threat to public safety, according to the sheriff’s news release, despite detectives ‘ efforts to understand the motive behind the suspects ‘ possession of the seized firearms.
After the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations intercepted internationally-shipped packages addressed to one of the 17-year-olds life in a Santa Rosa Valley home, the investigation started in May. According to the sheriff’s office, the items contained false pieces that were used in some guns and sections that could turn semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic machine guns.
” Several of these elements being imported into the U. S. from other countries, that was the precursor for this research”, said policeman Joshua Janca.
After the products were turned over to police, they launched a legal research. That 17-year-old reportedly made an attempt over the course of several months to have more packages of firearm parts delivered to his address, which federal authorities even intercepted. According to the sheriff’s office, two machine gun conversion tools and six false parts were found in those times.
The 17-year-old was detained on suspicion of attempting to move a firearm without authorization, attempting to possess a weapon without authorization, attempting to convert a weapon without authorization, and bringing a loaded rifle into a vehicle. The next 17-year-old was detained on suspicion of resisting blocking or delaying an officer, unlawfully transferring a rifle, and possessing a concealed weapons in a car. The male family was detained on suspicion of arranging for a murder and causing a prohibited weapons transfer.
Police with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Gun Violence Reduction Program led the research. People of the deputy company’s SWAT team and the Oxnard and Ventura police departments worked together to capture the weaponry.
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