August 21st, 2011

Air Force Unit Raids Las Vegas Gun Store

Air Force unit raids central valley gun store

http://www.lvrj.com/news/air-force-unit-raids-central-valley-gun-store-128106808.html

By Lawrence Mower

Las_Vegas_Citadel_Gun_and_Safe

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Posted: Aug. 19, 2011 | 6:12 p.m.

The U.S. Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations raided a central valley gun store Friday afternoon.

Officials would not state the purpose of the raid at the Citadel Gun & Safe, 4305 S. Dean Martin Drive, near Flamingo Road. A Nellis Air Force Base spokesman referred questions to the office’s headquarters in Quantico, Va., but said that the raid referred to an “ongoing investigation” on which he could not comment.

The office investigates Air Force and base-related crimes, including property crimes. Las Vegas police and the FBI assisted Friday. Spokesmen for the agencies declined to comment.

Witnesses saw SWAT officers shouting “search warrant” enter the store with guns drawn.

“We saw them break that door down and everything,” said Joe Gold, whose Bahama Mamas cigars office sits behind the gun store in the business park off Interstate 15. “They were everywhere here.”

Police were seen going in and out of an office behind the gun store that witnesses thought was uninhabited.

A message left with a spokeswoman for the Office of Special Investigations was not returned.

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.

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Oath Keepers Board member Terry Flink’s thoughts/reflections:

Recently, Oath Keepers reported on an effort by the FBI to get surplus store owners in the Denver area to spy and report as “suspicious” and “potential indicators of terrorist activities” customers that purchase popular preparedness items and firearms accessories. To see if there was any similar program here in Las Vegas, I spoke to John Call, a friend of mine and owner of Citadel Gun and Safe.

Citadel used to sell firearms but got out of the “gun business” a few years ago because it was no longer worth it due to all of the regulatory requirements and dealing with the bureaucracy of the ATF. They now only sell ammunition and firearms accessories, but have expanded their business to include preparedness items like generators, MRE’s, camping gear, etc. John also operates Silver State Mint and produced the Oath Keepers silver coins. John had not heard of any local request by the FBI but appreciated the heads up and would keep an eye out.

I have bought several firearms from John Call (when they were still a “gun store”), as well as ammunition, optics, and other gear. He is always talking about his latest “discovery” of some new gadget or the latest deal he has on a piece of gear. He is very active on Gun Broker and is always buying and selling some type of firearm or accessory. I have been in the store when someone walked in with a piece of gear they wanted to sell or trade which is more and more common in these economic times. John is also very active in the community offering free preparedness classes giving instruction on basic survival and items everyone should have on hand in order to weather any storm be it natural disaster, terrorist attack or civil unrest and rioting.

Needless to say I was quite surprised when I heard local news reports on Friday that Citadel Gun and Safe had been raided by the FBI, Las Vegas Metro Police and the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigation. One local station reported, “Nellis Air Force Base spokesman Master Sgt. Andrew Lynch declined to provide details, saying the operation was part of an ongoing investigation involving the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigation”.

The paper interviewed witnesses who said they saw officers shouting ’search warrant’ and enter the store. They said police were seen going in and out of an office behind the store.” In addition to the raid on the store, John’s home was searched as well. John was taken into custody and later released and was said to be “cooperating” with authorities. It was later reported the reason the Air Force participated in this investigation was because of stolen Air Force equipment.

It is always troubling when you turn on the news and see a friend being taken away by the police in handcuffs, but to see a tactical team invade someone’s place of business to investigate stolen goods should be another wake up call for everyone. As details emerge I can only speculate at this point, but it appears that Citadel Gun and Safe may have been in possession of items that were stolen from the Air Force.

I know John to be honest in all of his dealings with me and I would be quite surprised to find out he was involved in anything illegal. Is anyone surprised that someone would try to sell that kind of equipment to Citadel? Would a tactical team storm a pawn shop and haul off the owner in handcuffs if they were found to be in possession of stolen property?

There may have been a very legitimate reason to investigate this matter, but once again, people and businesses that the Department of Homeland Security consider a “domestic terrorist threat” are being targeted, defamed and intimidated in the interest of “public safety”.

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Updating with more recent article:

Air Force recovers stolen materials from Friday’s raid

http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/128140053.html

Las Vegas, NV (KTNV)- We’re learning more on why the U.S. Air Force raided a local gun store Friday. They say it wasn’t guns they were looking for.

An official from the Air Force is speaking to Action News about that raid. New information clarifies that this may have been an inside job, and the penalties could turn out to be very severe.

It was an afternoon that rocked businesses near Dean Martin and Flamingo. Local and federal law enforcement agencies swarmed in and served search warrants on Citadel Gun and Safe.

New information gives us an insight on the massive raid that up until now, authorities were tight lipped about. Turns out it was the Air Force Office of Special Investigations that led the raid.

“They went in there and did in fact find stolen air force military property that was stolen from Nellis Air Force Base,” says Linda Card with the Air Force OSI.

Metro lent a hand as well as the FBI, ATF, and ICE. The recovered material though would not have posed a danger to regular people, says the Air Force.

“It did not include weapons, guns, explosives of any kind, bombs, nothing like that. It was basic stolen military property,” says Card.

-read rest of KTNV’s article at above link-

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Posted in 2nd Amendment, All, Articles | 6 Comments »

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6 Responses to “Air Force Unit Raids Las Vegas Gun Store”

1
Gunny G Says:
August 21st, 2011 at 6:49 pm
I have seen this before when idiots sell their gear at local surplus stores, etc. I am more concerned with Obama pushing the UN gun ban.
2
Goldwing Says:
August 22nd, 2011 at 2:56 am
I now of at least two cases where military equipment was being stolen and then sold to surplus stores here in Utah. The owners where not held responsible but the military members that were running a ring were put in the gulag.

I hope this store owner was on the up and up and had no criminal intent. If so things will be ok for him.
3
Jeff Millerbis Says:
August 22nd, 2011 at 6:47 am
does this sursprise anybody????? our government can and does sell ALL our TAXED payers FUNDED military secrets to the highest bidders at every turn……bottom line ….they hate compitition.
opps ….did i say that out loud……u bet your ass i did.
signed conserned American Citizen…….
4
Oohrah Says:
August 31st, 2011 at 12:35 pm
What gives? The military should not have jurisdiction off of military property, nor an active part of serving any legal papers. I could have expected the ATF to pull this, and they have in that area over the years. Unchallenged, they will go where every they want to. What ever item they searched for must be declared on the warrant. Most stores will not have a list of items sold, and who the customers might be unless it is a fire arm. Usually crimes committed on government property are nota part of local law enforcement responsibility, unless a civil stolen property becomes a mutual aid
5
Festus Says:
September 1st, 2011 at 9:25 pm
This story does not surprise me in the least. The AFOSI do apparently have some sort of jurisdiction over stolen USAF property…but the real kicker is why would they not say what the property was? Is there a bigger picture? Is there another threat on the horizon that this is just a smaller piece of? I think the store owner may have made some legit trades and or purchases for items that the USAF deems militarily valuable…but at the same time the real criminals are the person or persons who stole the property from the USAF in the first place. The whole SWAT thing was a bit overboard but that is the police state we are facing. What ever happened to good old fashioned detective worka??????
6
Freedom Warrior Says:
September 3rd, 2011 at 7:45 am
If Eric Holder did not know about the gun running tasks of the ATF, why did he give this speech in 2009?Attorney General Eric Holder at the Mexico/United States Arms Trafficking Conference CUERNAVACA, MEXICO ~ Thursday, April 2, 2009
http://www.justice.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech-090402.html

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