Cache of 1000 guns
Los Angeles mansion raided by police, investigators
LOS ANGELES: The scene was straight out of a B movie: Rundown mansion. Flash neighbourhood. Anonymous tip. The whiff of celebrity. And a jawdroppingly large cache of weapons, some of questionable legality.
Investigators with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives descended on the tatty BelAir mansion along with members of the Los Angeles Police Department in the earlymorning darkness.
What they found there on Thursday was both lethal and perplexing. The sprawling white clapboard house — two storeys, five bedrooms, hidden behind a discoloured gate and a tall hedge — was in complete disarray. Guns were everywhere in what authorities described as a hoarder’s paradise in the 100 block of North Beverly Glen.
There were AR15 militarystyle automatic rifles, what appeared to be a World War 2era Thompson submachine gun, .44calibre handguns, .357 magnum revolvers, long guns with intricately carved stocks, an Uzi 9mm submachine gun — complete with silencer — and a 9mm Luger pistol. More than 1000 firearms in all. It took 30 law enforcement personnel more than a dozen hours to clear the house and remove the weapons, along with gun parts and boxes of ammunition. The weapons were arrayed in long lines on white blankets on the property’s winding driveway, a jumble of metal and wood.
Once authorities catalogued the stockpile, the guns were loaded into a large box truck and driven off the property. The weapons will be itemised and booked into evidence, LAPD spokesman Lieutenant Chris Ramirez said.
‘‘This is a big stash,’’ Lt Ramirez told reporters at the scene.
‘‘It’s beyond comprehension that somebody can have so many weapons in a residence like this, in a neighbourhood like this.’’
That somebody is allegedly Girard Saenz (57), who was inside the home at the time of the raid.
He was arrested on suspicion of violating California’s law regarding assault weapons and .50calibre Browning machine guns. The law prohibits the making, distributing, transporting, importing and sale of such guns except in specific circumstances.
As authorities investigated that evening, vans rumbled by, full of tourists headed to see the nearby Playboy Mansion and other homes owned by wealthy Los Angeles Alisters. JayZ and Beyonce live in a mansion about 1km from the scene.
But Saenz — who authorities allege was selling weapons from the home — has a much stronger connection to the rich and famous than simply living near the hiphop power couple.
He was identified in court records as the longtime companion of Los Angeles real estate mogul Cynthia Beck.
Public records show the BelAir property is owned by Beck, who has three daughters with J Paul Getty’s son Gordon Getty. Getty is an heir to the Getty Oil fortune and an international patron of the arts.
Beck was thrust into the spotlight in 1999, when the girls filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court to change their surname from Beck to the far more glamorous Getty. At the time, there also were negotiations over the possibility of future inheritance. — TCA