What started as an investigation into the unlawful sale of a single military-grade laser sight became the arrest of an Orange County man for possession of a cache of weapons of conflict and sexually specific youngster content material.
Arthit Tanjapatkul, 43, was charged Wednesday within the U.S. District Courtroom of Santa Ana with one rely of possession of 4 machine weapons and three counts of possession of kid pornography stemming from the restoration of tons of of movies and pictures of underage sexual content material.
Tanjapatkul was arrested Oct. 9, the identical day he was trying to depart the nation, in response to an FBI affidavit hooked up to the felony criticism. He’s being held on a $250,000 bond. Tanjapatkul is subsequent due in courtroom for his arraignment Nov. 18.
A name to Tanjapatkul’s legal professional was not instantly returned.
Tanjapatkul first got here underneath suspicion of the FBI in March 2023 when the Santa Ana resident promoted and offered on Fb and Fb Messenger the military-grade laser sight, a tool used for searching or army functions that initiatives a beam onto a goal, for $3,250.
The weapon was a part of an estimated $2-million trove of army tools stolen by former Military officer Bryan Allen whereas he was stationed at Ft. Bragg, N.C., in response to the felony criticism. A few of Allen’s pilfered tools included 43 enhanced night time imaginative and prescient goggles.
Allen was sentenced to 25 months in jail and ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution in 2020. A lot of the tools he stole has by no means been recovered, in response to the FBI.
Between 2014 and 2019, Tanjapatkul despatched 150 funds totaling $277,000 to Allen, in response to an FBI affidavit.
When Tanjapatkul’s house was raided in October 2023, FBI brokers, aided by Santa Ana police, seized 71 objects of apparatus, together with 4 machine weapons, dozens of firearms and a cellphone by which Tanjapatkul mentioned the weaponry with potential consumers. Officers additionally recovered a tough drive containing youngster pornography with people as younger as 7, in response to the affidavit.
In July 2024, authorities searched a storage unit owned by Tanjapatkul and found 26 extra firearms and a good bigger haul of kid pornography — 10 disks containing 79 movies and 831 photos — of sexually abusive materials of youngsters.
In complete, brokers discovered dozens of firearms and tons of of items of army tools in Tanjapatkul’s possession.
Tanjapatkul stated in his interview with the FBI that he thought of himself a “collector, trader, and hoarder of gear,” in response to the FBI affidavit. He believed a few of his gear was authorized and was surplus army and legislation enforcement tools.
If convicted, he may face a most of 70 years in a federal jail.
