Nearly 900 Assault Rifles, Handguns Seized From Home

[Lazy Fed]

Authorities Find Weapons In Home Of Convicted Felon


Nearly 900 assault rifles and handguns and a cache of silencers were seized from a convicted felon's Upland home following a two-month investigation, state and federal law authorities said Tuesday.

The seizure followed a raid last Friday at the Upland home of Robert Ferro, 61, a convicted felon and former gun dealer, said Will Telish, special agent in charge with the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force, or L.A. Impact.

It is the largest weapons seizure in the history of the agency and one of the largest seizures in Southern California in recent years, Telish said.

"Two-hundred assault rifles, 200 machine guns, hundreds of handguns and 200 silencers were seized," Telish said.


Among the fully automatic guns were .50-caliber weapons mounted on tripods. Some explosives also were seized, he said.

The raid, involving the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the state Department of Justice of Narcotic Enforcement and the Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties sheriff's departments, stemmed from the arrest of Frank Beltran at Ferro's other home in Rancho Cucamonga.

Beltran, 36, an acquaintance of Ferro, was arrested March 27 following a standoff with San Bernardino County Sheriff's SWAT deputies. Authorities learned of Ferro after making several arrests while searching for Beltran, authorities said.

Beltran, a La Verne resident, was a fugitive after the Feb. 10 shooting and wounding of a reserve Glendora police officer who responded to a 911 hang-up call. The officer, Casey O'Gorman, is recovering.

Three weeks after the O'Gorman shooting, Beltran allegedly shot and wounded his wife, Angelique Beltran, as she was driving in San Dimas. She survived and is recovering.

Beltran is charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, burglary and child abuse.

Following Beltran's arrest at Ferro's Rancho Cucamonga house, investigators turned their attention to Ferro, who has a 1995 conviction for possession of an explosive device, Telish said.

Ferro had a gun dealer's license, but lost it after his conviction.

"The important thing is that he was not allowed to own any guns," Telish said. "Given the amount of weapons seized we think he was doing it (buying weapons) the whole time since 1995."

During the investigation of Ferro and Beltran following Beltran's Rancho Cucamonga arrest, investigators learned that Ferro owned a 7,000-square-foot home at 2045 Tapia Way in Upland.

Investigators served a search warrant on the Upland home and seized the weapons.

The task force displayed the weapons Tuesday at a news conference outside ATF offices.

Some of the rifles were fitted with silencers. Among the cache was a Chinese-made SKS assault rifle and other rifles illegal for citizens to own.

The pistols included included vintage German Lugers, chrome- or gold-plated Western-style revolvers, and Uzis. All were well maintained and operable.

"There's only one reason why these weapons are made, and that's to kill," Telish said.

Los Angeles County sheriff's Detective Mark Montoya said the guns were found stuffed into every conceivable place in the home.

"Every semiautomatic weapon was loaded," Montoya said. "They were hidden behind pictures, in cabinets. All over the house."

The agency task force also found a crude underground shooting range that could accommodate two or three people at a time. The range was converted from a wine cellar and extended from under the house to underneath the backyard.

On Monday, the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office charged Ferro with eight felony counts of possession of firearms by a felon, possession of destructive devices and possession of deadly weapons.

Federal charges also are pending against Ferro, Telish said.

Ferro's wife and adult daughters, who live at the Upland home, were not charged with any crimes.

Beltran's charges are unrelated to those pending against Ferro.

[BigBossMan]

This guy already gave two different stories on why he had those guns. Yeah, like our government would give him weapons to go overthrow Castro!!