The Uncovered Arsenal

Investigators said Monday that they discovered illegal automatic weapons among an arsenal of guns, ammunition and illegal explosives retrieved over the weekend from the side yard of Irvine biomedical researcher Dr. Larry C. Ford.

Some of the weapons found in six buried canisters were decades old, in keeping with Ford’s family’s assertions that he was an avid gun collector. But other weapons were of more recent issue, and the seized ammunition included two boxes holding nearly 50 incendiary cartridges, most of them 5.56mm rounds, Irvine police said.

“Those are rounds that are coated with a tip of phosphorous, so when it hits an object it ignites and creates a fire,” said Police Lt. Sam Allevato. “They’re used by the military. It’s illegal to possess them.”

In another development late Monday, police searched an Irvine storage facility rented to Biofem. The unit at Irvine Mini-Storage on Kelvin Avenue contained bottles that appeared to contain common chemicals and pharmaceuticals used in research, police Sgt. Wallace Prestidge said.

Investigators worked into the night examining the contents of the unit, he said, to determine if any of the material was hazardous.

Details of the investigation come as an Orange County grand jury continues to probe the bizarre attempted murder Feb. 28 of James Patrick Riley, Ford’s business partner in Biofem Inc., then Ford’s apparent suicide three days later. Police have arrested the alleged driver of the van in which an unidentified gunman fled after shooting Riley outside Biofem’s Irvine Spectrum office.

Police said they believe money was behind the attack on Riley, but two weeks later, they still don’t have a clear understanding of the motives behind the botched hit or Ford’s apparent suicide March 2.

So far, the grand jury has called Ford’s lawyer, Stephen Klarich, who spoke with Ford for several hours before the suicide, and members of Ford’s family. Klarich refused to testify, citing attorney-client privilege. Ford’s son, Larry C. Ford Jr., declined to discuss his testimony.

The Orange County district attorney’s office, citing the confidential nature of the grand jury proceedings, declined comment Monday. But legal observers said it was highly unusual that prosecutors would turn to a grand jury this early in a police investigation.

Karen R. Smith, a professor at Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, said grand jury investigations are a tool often used by prosecutors in sensitive cases.

“It helps overcome witness reluctance,” she said.

Witnesses in criminal investigations are not obligated to answer questions posed by police; however, a grand jury subpoena legally compels them to testify. Such witnesses are not represented by an attorney, but can invoke their 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Smith said the secrecy of grand jury proceedings serves to shield witnesses and prosecutors from disclosing what they find. Also, it often can help the government gauge how a panel of citizens might interpret the facts of a case.

“It is a chance for the prosecutor to test whether this is going to make sense to people,” she said.

Allevato said prosecutors turned to the grand jury to try to compel witnesses to cooperate with the investigation.

“Some people are afraid, and some want assurances of immunity, and some want what they say to be held in confidence,” he said. “All the testimony that they give will be confidential.”

Meanwhile, police said again they have warned an unspecified number of Ford’s friends and former business associates to be on guard against possible assaults. Allevato declined to discuss why investigators issued the warnings.

“It’s just a precaution,” he said.

Ford has worked as an advisor to the South African Defense Forces’ apartheid-era program to develop biological and chemical weapons, according to sources involved in the program. An attorney for the family also has said police informed them that Ford had long-standing ties with the Central Intelligence Agency. But the police deny saying that, and the CIA has denied any connection with Ford.

Investigators who searched Ford’s home on Foxboro found jars of suspected biological materials, which have been sent to the FBI’s crime lab in Washington. Results of the preliminary tests should be available today, Allevato said.

After Ford family members told investigators that he had buried weapons in the yard, police evacuated more than 200 neighbors and closed Springbrook Elementary School for three days in case hazardous materials also were buried.

Investigators unearthed six canisters that were turned over to FBI officials, who opened them Sunday at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Los Alamitos, then returned the contents to Irvine police.

The canisters contained 15 to 20 weapons; 2 1/2 pounds of C-4, a military explosive; blasting caps; and ammunition, Allevato said.

The weapons included semiautomatic and fully automatic assault rifles, including a 1920s-era Thompson “Tommy” submachine gun, an M-16, an Austrian military machine gun, a British World War II-era machine gun and at least one Mac-10 and Tec-9.

“They’re military weapons. . . . They could be collectible, but the only thing is, you wouldn’t store them like that,” Allevato said. “It would be like putting a beautiful car underground and the moisture eating away at it. Some were in good condition and some of them have rust on them.”

Still, Allevato said, “they’re capable of doing a lot of destruction.”

Police have called Ford a possible suspect in the plot to kill Riley, who has been in seclusion since he was shot through the face. The two men were partners in Biofem, through which they hoped to market a female contraceptive that would also retard the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

In a business plan circulated two years ago to raise money, the company said it expected the vaginal suppository to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in profits four years after reaching market. The company has yet to launch clinical trials of the suppositories.

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Times staff writer Scott Martelle contributed to this report.