What started out as an investigation into the unlawful price of a second military-grade laser vision led to the arrest of a man in Orange County for possessing a memory of weapons of war and having sexually explicit child material.
Arthit Tanjapatkul, 43,  , was charged Wednesday , in the , U. S. District Court of Santa Ana , with one count of possession of four system artillery and three counts of possession of child pornography stemming from the treatment of hundreds of movies and images of young sexual material.
Tanjapatkul was arrested , Oct. 9, the same day he was attempting to leave the country, according to an , FBI , petition attached to the criminal problem. He is being held on a$ 250, 000 bond. Tanjapatkul is second expected in court for his arraignment , Nov. 18.
A visit to Tanjapatkul’s counsel was not soon returned.
Tanjapatkul initially came under suspicion of the , FBI , in , March 2023 , when the , Santa Ana , native promoted and sold on Facebook and Facebook Messenger the military-grade light vision, a device used for shooting or military reasons that projects a frame onto a target, for$ 3, 250.
The weapon was part of an estimated ,$ 2-million trove of military equipment , stolen by former Army officer  , Bryan Allen , while he was stationed at Ft. Bragg, N. C., according to the criminal complaint. Some of Allen’s pilfered equipment included 43 enhanced night vision goggles.
Allen was sentenced to , 25 months in prison and ordered to pay$ 250, 000 , in restitution in 2020. Much of the equipment he stole has never been recovered, according to the , FBI.
Between 2014 and 2019, Tanjapatkul sent 150 payments totaling$ 277, 000 to Allen, according to an , FBI , affidavit.
When Tanjapatkul’s home was raided in , October 2023,  , FBI , agents, aided by , Santa Ana , police, seized 71 items of equipment, including four machine guns, dozens of firearms and a cellphone in which Tanjapatkul discussed the weaponry with potential buyers. According to the affidavit, officials also recovered a hard drive with child pornography with children as young as 7 from the computer.
Authorities searched a storage unit owned by Tanjapatkul in July 2024, and they discovered 26 more firearms and a ton more child pornography, 10 disks containing 79 videos and 831 images of child porn.
In total, agents found dozens of firearms and hundreds of pieces of military equipment in Tanjapatkul’s possession.
Tanjapatkul said in his interview with the , FBI , that he considered himself a” collector, trader, and hoarder of gear”, according to the , FBI , affidavit. He thought some of his equipment was outdated military and law enforcement equipment.
If convicted, he could face a maximum of 70 years in a federal prison.
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