Owner Of Eastvale Home Raided In Huge Weapons Bust Identified
EASTVALE (CBS/AP) — A Riverside County man was arrested on suspicion of dealing illegal weapons after state firearms agents seized more than 200 firearms, plastic explosives, a machine gun and other restricted weapons from his Eastvale home, authorities said Friday.
Victor Christian Robles, 30, was booked into jail for possession of a destructive device, sale of an assault weapon, and several other state firearms violations following Thursday night's raid.
Agents seized a machine gun, a fully automatic Uzi-style submachine gun, 36.4 grams of C-4 plastic explosive, grenade fuses, more than 100 handguns, 60 rifles, and an additional 40 weapons that fall under California's definition of restricted assault rifles. They also seized a restricted short-barreled shotgun and a rocket launcher tube — without any rockets.
State Department of Justice Special Agent Michelle Gregory said she was not sure how much damage the plastic explosive could do. A bomb squad and federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents were summoned to assist the state investigators, she said.
"C-4 is not something a random citizen has," she said.
However, she and department spokesman Nicholas Pacilio said there was no immediate indication that Robles intended to harm anyone.
"We're still looking into it, but we don't have any indication at this point," Pacilio said.
He said Robles had no prior criminal history. Investigators were trying to trace the origins of the weapons.
AT-4 rocket launcher tubes of the sort seized from Robles' home appear to be readily available on the Internet, and are not dangerous without the rockets they are designed to fire at tanks and other targets. Gregory said they are not aware that Robles had any of the rockets.
Robles posted $150,000 bail and was released for a future court date, Gregory said. She did not believe he had retained an attorney.
On Thursday, officials told KCAL9's Crystal Cruz that some of the explosives seemed to date back to the Vietnam war era.
Also, Cruz spoke to neighbors who said there were always lots of kids going in and out of the house.
Returning to the neighborhood on Friday, Cruz spoke to neighbors who said they were always suspicious of the goings-on at the Robles house because he received an inordinate amount of deliveries.
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