2 Charged After Raid Turns Up Guns, Drugs
Two Palmdale men suspected of narcotics trafficking were in custody Friday after a raid on their house turned up several hundred weapons and a small amount of illegal drugs, police said.
Raul Gomez, 39, and Stephen Hamilton, 33, were jailed on charges of possession of an explosive device and possession of methamphetamine for sale, said Sgt. Jim Brent of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Antelope Valley substation.
The 9 a.m. raid culminated a monthlong Sheriff’s Department investigation of the house on Avenue T-6 in Palmdale, Brent said. Neighbors had complained to police that drugs were being sold there, he said.
Deputies found half a gram of methamphetamine and six ounces of marijuana, Brent said, as well as 75 handguns and rifles, 200 knives and swords, two sticks of dynamite with electric blasting caps and an inoperable anti-personnel rocket launcher. Deputies suspect Gomez and Hamilton were selling, but not manufacturing, the illegal drugs, Brent said.
Gomez and Hamilton were held on $60,000 bail each, Brent said.
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