Agents Find Explosives, Evacuate 32 Homes : Crime: Federal officers remove a cache of claymore mines and automatic weapons from a house in Valencia and arrest its co-owner.

Federal agents evacuated 32 homes Tuesday after they raided a house in Valencia and confiscated a collection of military explosives and automatic weapons.

Joseph Yohanna, 31, was taken into custody on suspicion of possessing multiple unregistered firearms after agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms served a search warrant at his Via Maduro home.

Yohanna, a bodyguard for a record company and a reserve member of the U. S. Army Special Forces, was taken into custody without incident Tuesday morning as he left the two-story home he owns in the quiet, middle-class neighborhood, said John D’Angelo, ATF special agent.

Eight claymore mines, each containing C-4 plastic explosives; two incendiary devices, four automatic weapons, eight silencers, nine handguns, two shotguns and one rifle were found within the house and a safe in the garage. Also found were an additional pound of C-4 explosives, a quarter-pound block of TNT, 40 feet of detonating cord and 13 fuse igniters.

Yohanna also had a handgun in his possession when he was arrested.

A claymore mine is a military anti-personnel mine with ball bearings embedded in resin and C-4 (plastic) explosives whose blast can be focused in the direction of an advancing enemy.

“I don’t think he possessed it to sell, or to sell the stuff to anyone of particular political views,” said D’Angelo. “I think he had them because, for lack of a better term, he was enamored of the stuff.”

Yohanna was transported to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. Charges and his bail amount are expected to be determined today.

ATF agents were serving a search warrant at the brown and tan, two-story home to look for the firearms based upon information provided by an unidentified source. Yohanna is co-owner of the house with his sister, who was out of town Tuesday, D’Angelo said.

“We were working on information from an informant,” said D’Angelo. “The C-4 and other explosives were a surprise.”

Agents halted the search after finding the mines and summoned members of the Los Angeles County arson and explosives unit to gather them. Sheriff’s deputies evacuated 32 homes in the Valencia neighborhood, at least 15 of which were occupied at the time.

“It was a dangerous situation,” said Marv Dixon, operations lieutenant for the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff’s station. “That was a significant amount of explosive that had no business in a residential area.”

The explosive material was not connected to the fuses or blasting caps, but would have caused formidable damage if detonated, authorities said.

“It would have leveled this house and probably the ones around it,” D’Angelo said.

The firearms were taken as evidence by the federal agents, while the mines were transported to Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho where they will be stored during the legal proceedings and eventually detonated.

Residents in the Valencia neighborhood were surprised by the discovery.

“We’ve lived here for 14 years and nothing like this has ever happened,” said Susan Olmstead. “I leave my door open. I’ve never felt like I’ve had to lock things.”