Arsenal unnoticed
GUNS SAT IN SUV FOR 4 1/2 MONTHS
By ROB LAMBERTI, TORONTO SUN
A LARGE cache of firearms seized by Toronto Police last week sat in an abandoned SUV in an East York apartment parking lot for 4 1/2 months. The astonishing batch of firepower was described by Chief Julian Fantino as "better armament than we have as a police service."
The weapons, spotted by the superintendent of the Blair St. building when he looked in the SUV, included mostly assault weapons. There were a .45-calibre Thompson sub-machinegun, a 7.62-mm Galil, a Kalashnikov, an AK-47 with a drum magazine, another Galil with a folding stock, three AR-15s and ammunition.
An officer familiar with the case doesn't think the weapons were intended for the underworld market. The suspected owner was once a licensed gun collector who had let his permits lapse, he explained.
It would have been frightening if criminals had found the cache, he said: "It was enough to overthrow an island in the Caribbean."
The owner of the SUV has been in jail awaiting trial since he was arrested last Sept. 16 on fraud and firearms-related offences. His wife was also arrested and charged with 24 firearm and fraud charges.
Police finished processing the firearms on Tuesday as evidence in the ongoing case against Tak Kwong Chan, 39 and his wife, Rita Mark-Chan, 39. The Crown is expected to update the charges in court to a total of 160 charges against the husband.
GUNS SAT IN SUV FOR 4 1/2 MONTHS
By ROB LAMBERTI, TORONTO SUN
A LARGE cache of firearms seized by Toronto Police last week sat in an abandoned SUV in an East York apartment parking lot for 4 1/2 months. The astonishing batch of firepower was described by Chief Julian Fantino as "better armament than we have as a police service."
The weapons, spotted by the superintendent of the Blair St. building when he looked in the SUV, included mostly assault weapons. There were a .45-calibre Thompson sub-machinegun, a 7.62-mm Galil, a Kalashnikov, an AK-47 with a drum magazine, another Galil with a folding stock, three AR-15s and ammunition.
An officer familiar with the case doesn't think the weapons were intended for the underworld market. The suspected owner was once a licensed gun collector who had let his permits lapse, he explained.
It would have been frightening if criminals had found the cache, he said: "It was enough to overthrow an island in the Caribbean."
The owner of the SUV has been in jail awaiting trial since he was arrested last Sept. 16 on fraud and firearms-related offences. His wife was also arrested and charged with 24 firearm and fraud charges.
Police finished processing the firearms on Tuesday as evidence in the ongoing case against Tak Kwong Chan, 39 and his wife, Rita Mark-Chan, 39. The Crown is expected to update the charges in court to a total of 160 charges against the husband.
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