4 Plead Not Guilty in Theft of Explosives : Crime: The Canyon Country teen-agers are accused of hiding the devices as close as 10 yards to Metrolink tracks.

Four Canyon Country teen-agers pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that they possessed and transported more than 7,500 pounds of stolen explosives that sheriff’s deputies found stashed along the Metrolink train tracks in Santa Clarita.

The explosives, allegedly stolen from the P.W. Gillibrand Rock Quarry in Canyon Country last week, were hidden in two separate locations near the commuter railway. Some of the explosives were found as close as 10 yards from the track.

Investigators say the youths planned to sell the explosives, rather than use them for an assault on the railroad or any other purpose.

They were identified as Joel Soltero, 18; Larry Blevins, 19; Regan Coultas, 19, and Jerry Donegan, 19. Bail for Soltero and Blevins was set at $560,000. Bail for Coultas and Donegan was set at $515,000.

Daniel N. Damon, the deputy district attorney in charge of the Newhall office, successfully argued that hiding the explosives near the tracks made the case too serious for bail to be reduced.

“It’s such an inherently dangerous act,” he said following the arraignment at Newhall Municipal Court. Investigators seized 450 pounds of commercial explosive, 200 pounds of dynamite booster and 1,200 feet of timed fuse and detonator cord.

But defense attorney Kevin Lynch, who represented Blevins, was among the attorneys who argued the bail was too high.

Lynch argued that Blevins had no criminal record and is “not a flight risk.”

A preliminary hearing was set for Sept. 22.

Damon said the four were arrested after the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Metrolink unit staked out Control Point Humphreys, a switching station just north of Santa Clarita where vandals had smashed electronic equipment worth $300,000 in six incidents.

Blevins and Soltero were arrested in a stakeout Thursday. As they were processed, the Metrolink sheriff’s unit found documents pertaining to the high explosives stolen from the rock quarry and notified bomb and arson investigators. The other two arrests followed.

“But for the vandalism at that time, this would be an unsolved case,” Damon said.

All four were charged with burglary in the theft of the explosives, plus counts of possession of destructive devices near rail facilities and with transporting those devices in vehicles. Blevins and Soltero were also charged with commercial burglary and vandalism in connection with damage at the Metrolink switching station.