Gun task force arrests two after drugs, weapons found
SAN JOSE >> Two men were arrested after a raid of a mobile home in South San Jose yielded a gun-making operation featuring several illegal assault rifles and machine guns, as well as enough fentanyl and other narcotics to arouse suspicion of drug trafficking, authorities say.
The Santa Clara County Gun Violence Task Force — consisting of the District Attorney's Office, San Jose police, the Sheriff's Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — conducted a warrant search Nov. 28 of a home on Ford Road. It was part of a weapons investigation that led to the arrests of residents Calvin Le, 25, and John Phan, 33.
Le has been charged with 13 felony counts encompassing illegal gun manufacturing, possession of assault weapons, possession of a machine gun and illegally selling fentanyl, MDMA and cocaine, according to a criminal complaint. Phan was charged with five felony counts covering similar drug crime allegations and illegally possessing ammunition and a handgun with an “obliterated” serial number, the latter violating weapons prohibitions placed on him by a past felony conviction.
Both men were set to be arraigned Nov. 30. After their arrest, they were booked into the Elmwood men's jail in Milpitas, held without bail.
It was not clear, at least publicly, how the two men fell under the scrutiny of the task force, which draws on state red-flag laws to disarm people who exhibit threatening behavior, have serious mental illness or have violent criminal histories and are known or suspected to have guns.
District Attorney Jeff
Rosen cited an ongoing investigation, and the prospect of additional defendants, in explaining why more details have not been disclosed.
“We think this arrest may lead to the arrest and prosecution of others that were involved in this illegal gun trafficking operation,” Rosen said Nov. 30. “Because the investigation is continuing, there's not a lot we can say right now about how these offenders came to our attention.”
During the raid on Le and Phan's residence, the task force, backed by San Jose police's SWAT team, reportedly recovered two Ak-style assault rifles modified to operate as machine guns, two Ar-style semi-automatic rifles with one deemed an untraceable ghost weapon, a ghost pistol, two handguns and thousands of rounds of ammunition including armor-piercing bullets. The charges allege some of the rifles were illegally modified to have shorter barrels.
Also, authorities say they discovered large amounts of fentanyl, more than 2,000 pills of MDMA, cocaine and marijuana. The marijuana discovery yielded an additional misdemeanor drug charge for Phan.
The DA'S Office said Nov. 30 that the arrests of Le and Phan were the task force's first recovery of “a weapons arsenal” and are “the first of what will be more cases where we're finding the individuals and the networks that are making illegal machine guns and illegal assault rifles.”