Police find drugs, weapons in Costa Mesa home

Deepa Bharath

NEWPORT BEACH -- Police and the district attorney’s office are working

to determine which charges should be filed against a Costa Mesa man found

in possession of five pounds of marijuana and a cache of assault rifles.

Edward Robert Rogers, 30, was arrested at about 11:55 a.m. Thursday

when Newport Beach Police Department detectives, in a traffic stop,

seized two pounds of high-quality marijuana from Rogers’ 1989 white

Chevrolet pickup truck.

They subsequently found 20 guns in his home in the 1700 block of

Crestmont Place -- including 11 assault rifles, two shotguns, three .22

rifles, an assault pistol, two semiautomatic pistols and a 50 caliber

rifle.

Three pounds of marijuana and more than $1,000 were also found in

Rogers’ home, in addition to magazines for the weapons and several cases

of ammunition, police said.

The arrest concluded a weeklong narcotics investigation into Roberts’

drug trafficking activities, said Sgt. Steve Shulman, spokesman for the

Police Department.

“We did find violations in his possession of some of the weapons,” he

said.

But detectives are researching and testing other weapons and working

with the district attorney’s office to determine which charges should be

filed, Shulman said.

The guns by themselves are not illegal, but possessing them without

the appropriate license and registration is against the law, he said.

However, brass knuckles and batons, also found in Rogers’ home, are

illegal.

This was far from one of the biggest weapon confiscations for the

department, he said.

“There have been larger weapon confiscations,” he said. “It is pretty

common to find weapons where there are drugs.”

Rogers is being held at the Newport Beach Police Department’s jail,

with bail set at $75,000.