LOS ANGELES –
A California lawyer and former Rialto Police officer was sentenced this
afternoon to 24 months in federal prison for possessing unregistered firearms,
silencers and a hand grenade inside his pickup truck during a law enforcement
stop.
Sergio Lopez
de Tirado, 44, of Corona, was sentenced by United States District Judge
Fernando M. Olguin after he pleaded guilty in April 2019 to one count of
possession of unregistered firearms and a destructive device.
On December
21, 2018, law enforcement found Lopez de Tirado asleep and apparently
intoxicated in the passenger’s seat of a pickup truck that was parked with its
doors wide open and blocking a driveway in Norco.
Upon
searching the vehicle, law enforcement found two unregistered firearm
silencers, including one that was attached to a semiautomatic rifle; an
unregistered 9mm semiautomatic short-barreled rifle; and an unregistered hand
grenade.
Law
enforcement also found high-capacity magazines, ammunition, knives, a baton,
brass knuckles, a Kevlar military-style helmet, and small bags containing
marijuana and methamphetamine. That same evening, officers located enough
bomb-making materials inside Lopez de Tirado’s home to construct several more
homemade bombs.
Lopez de
Tirado admitted in his plea agreement that he had not registered the
short-barrel rifle, the silencers or the hand grenade with the National Firearms
Registration and Transfer Record.
This case was
investigated by the FBI’s Inland Empire Joint Terrorism Task Force and the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Substantial assistance was
provided by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, the Rialto Police
Department, the Corona Police Department, and the California Highway Patrol.
This case was
prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Reema M. El-Amamy of the
Terrorism and Export Crimes Section.
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