2 Seized in Sale of Guns, Explosives in Woodland Hills

About 15 pounds of powerful plastic explosives were confiscated by authorities in the parking lot of Taft High School in Woodland Hills on Wednesday night after Los Angeles police and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms undercover investigators arrested two men who allegedly were trying to sell the explosives.

Authorities blocked off about a quarter of a mile of Ventura Boulevard for more than two hours while the police bomb squad removed the explosives, known as C-4, from a car used by the suspects, said Charles M. Pratt, group supervisor for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Pistols, Drugs Confiscated

Also confiscated from the trunk of the car were blasting caps, two silencer-equipped pistols and five ounces of the drug PCP, Pratt said.

The arrested men were identified as Edward Steven Pajak, 37, who has residences in both Tujunga and Canoga Park, and John David McCandless, 31, of Simi Valley.

Pajak and McCandless were arrested on charges of conspiracy to possess and transfer illegal firearms, illegal explosives and narcotics.

Both men were carrying pistols but did not resist arrest, Pratt said.

“We don’t know exactly who they are or what they were up to,” Pratt said. But he predicted that there would be more arrests.

The investigation began in Fresno on Monday with a tip from an informant, Pratt said. Two federal agents posing as potential buyers for the C-4, silenced pistols and PCP then arranged to meet Pajak and McCandless at a Denny’s restaurant on Ventura Boulevard, across the street from the high school, he said.

The agents negotiated the purchase in the restaurant shortly after 6 p.m., then went across the street to the high school parking lot, where the suspects displayed the goods in the trunk of their car, a 1970 Javelin, Pratt said.

Assist From LAPD Team

Pajak and McCandless then were arrested by the two agents and a backup team from the Los Angeles Police Department’s anti-terrorist division, he said.

The two suspects never asked the undercover agents why they wanted the explosives, Pratt said.

C-4 is a powerful explosive made from a chemical called RDX. The whitish, putty-like material is known for its malleability and the way force from the explosion can be directed.

Pratt said the explosives, which were packed in a foam cooler, would have caused “a considerable amount of damage.”

Los Angeles police closed off Ventura Boulevard from Winnetka Avenue to Moreno Drive, which is two blocks west of the high school, from 6:30 to 8:45 p.m.

As the bomb squad removed the blasting caps and the explosive, police also closed the Ventura Freeway exit and entry ramps at Winnetka Avenue, and other streets around the high school. The Taft parking lot was evacuated, as was the Denny’s restaurant across the street.

According to a police chemist at the scene, the explosive and shrapnel from the car would have severely damaged anything in the parking lot and probably would would have blown the windows out of buildings more than a block away.

No residences were evacuated, but authorities warned about 60 guests at the nearby Vagabond Inn, at 20157 Ventura Blvd., about the danger of flying glass. The guests were told “to stay in the back of the room and away from all glass,” desk clerk Maureen Morris said.