VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Search warrants detail illegal gun busts in the city.
The busts come at a time when police are publicly sharing information about their efforts to crack down on illegal guns.
"We are trying to take the guns out of the hands of folks that shouldn’t have them or are not stable or mature enough to have those guns," Police Chief Paul Neudigate told News 3 last month.
Two warrants shed light into these investigations. In one, police said they saw a car speeding 98-miles an hour on 264 near First Colonial Road, according to the search warrant.
Police stopped the car and saw six people inside the car. One of the people in the car said he had a shotgun, but investigators said it was illegally concealed because he did not have a concealed carry permit and wasn't old enough to have one.
Police searched the car finding a total of five guns, according to the search warrant.
Chief Neudigate said traffic stops are a key way they're finding these guns. "A lot of them are coming from traffic stops. We hear about the concerns about traffic stops, but traffic stops are a huge staple of policing because criminals have to travel," Neudigate said.
In another case, investigators said they saw a man in Beach Garden Park after midnight. The park is closed a night. Police said they stopped the man and found him to have two guns on him, which he was not allowed to have because he's a convicted felon. The man told police he bought the guns "on the street" from someone he did not identify, according to the search warrant.
Investigators said the man had a trigger activator, which is an illegal device that can be attached to a handgun to turn it into an automatic weapon, according to the search warrant.
News 3 asked Commonwealth's Attorney Colin Stolle about these recent busts. "While we cannot comment on specific pending arrests or prosecutions, any time police seize illegal weapons, the community is safer. My office has always placed a high priority in prosecuting gun charges and will continue to fight to keep Virginia Beach safe," Stolle said in a statement to News 3.
