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South Carolina:
US authorities have seized up to 10,000 guns from a South Carolina home during a raid, in one of the biggest arms hauls in the country that has witnessed a series of horrific mass shooting incidents.
51-year-old Brent Nicholson is behind bars on charges of possession of stolen property. And authorities are sifting through between 8,000 and 10,000 guns, trying to determine where they came from, Chesterfield County Sheriff's Captain Daniel Scott said.
There were so many guns inside the home and in a storage building nearby that investigators stopped counting after a while, Chesterfield County Sheriff Jay Brooks told The Charlotte Observer.
There were so many guns that they filled multiple tractor trailers with items they seized in the raid.
And there were so many guns, Brooks said, that top law enforcement officials from the area had never seen such a big stash.
"None of us have ever seen anything anywhere close to this," Brooks told CNN affiliate WBTV. "No telling how many break-ins this will help wrap up."
The raid began on Friday and continued over the weekend, the report said.
Nicholson was arrested in Union County, North Carolina, on Saturday. His family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brooks said that the case against Nicholson is still in the works, and he could make his first court appearance at a bond hearing later this week.
"He was hoarding most of it, but it's all stolen material from all over numerous counties and it's going to take a lot to sort all this out," Brooks said.
Guns were not the only thing hidden inside the home, according to investigators. They also found 150 chainsaws and numerous taxidermy supplies.
The value of items seized from the home could total USD one million, Scott said.
"People would steal anything and bring it to him," Brooks said, "and they knew he would pay them cash for it."
The US is reeling from several mass shooting incidents.
The last major incident was on October 1 when a 26-year-old gunman murdered as many as nine people and wounded seven more at a community college in Oregon before he was killed.
51-year-old Brent Nicholson is behind bars on charges of possession of stolen property. And authorities are sifting through between 8,000 and 10,000 guns, trying to determine where they came from, Chesterfield County Sheriff's Captain Daniel Scott said.
There were so many guns inside the home and in a storage building nearby that investigators stopped counting after a while, Chesterfield County Sheriff Jay Brooks told The Charlotte Observer.
There were so many guns that they filled multiple tractor trailers with items they seized in the raid.
And there were so many guns, Brooks said, that top law enforcement officials from the area had never seen such a big stash.
"None of us have ever seen anything anywhere close to this," Brooks told CNN affiliate WBTV. "No telling how many break-ins this will help wrap up."
The raid began on Friday and continued over the weekend, the report said.
Nicholson was arrested in Union County, North Carolina, on Saturday. His family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brooks said that the case against Nicholson is still in the works, and he could make his first court appearance at a bond hearing later this week.
"He was hoarding most of it, but it's all stolen material from all over numerous counties and it's going to take a lot to sort all this out," Brooks said.
Guns were not the only thing hidden inside the home, according to investigators. They also found 150 chainsaws and numerous taxidermy supplies.
The value of items seized from the home could total USD one million, Scott said.
"People would steal anything and bring it to him," Brooks said, "and they knew he would pay them cash for it."
The US is reeling from several mass shooting incidents.
The last major incident was on October 1 when a 26-year-old gunman murdered as many as nine people and wounded seven more at a community college in Oregon before he was killed.
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