Alleged drug dealer had up to 10,000 stolen shotguns and rifles at his home and in storage unit

Alleged drug dealer had up to 10,000 stolen shotguns and rifles at his home and in storage unit

WHEN sheriff’s deputies went to serve a subpoena on an alleged drug dealer at his home they discovered up to 10,000 stolen shotguns and hunting rifles.

“We honestly passed guns from one person to the other as fast as you could for nine straight hours,” Chesterfield County Sheriff Jay Brooks told WBTV.

“There were so many guns we quit counting after a while.”

Brent Nicholson, 51, was arrested and charged with trafficking opium and heroin earlier in the week in and deputies went with the subpoena to his home just outside the Town of Pageland in South Carolina.
They noticed what appeared to be stolen goods in his front yard that had been reported missing only days earlier and went to a judge for a search warrant. Then they went inside the house and made the startling discoveries. Deputies also went to a warehouse owned by Nicholson and found more firearms and stolen goods.

“There’s somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 stolen weapons,” Brooks said.

“None of us have ever seen anything anywhere close to this.

“No telling how many break-ins this will help wrap up.

Brooks said almost all of the weapons were shotguns and hunting rifles and that it looked like Nicholson was hoarding guns other people had stolen for him. There was no indication Nicholson was a gun trafficker at this stage, he said.

“There’s no evidence that he even used them,” Brooks said. “There’s no evidence that he was selling them — he just wanted them. His house looked like that hoarders program on TV.”

Hunting crossbows; ammunition; taxidermed deer, elk and alligator heads; hunting mounts; tools; air compressors and more than 500 chainsaws were also found, all believed stolen.

The Charlotte Observer reported that hundreds more weapons were found at a liquor store Nicholson and his father run and at the father’s house.

The weapons and the loot were hauled away in four 12-metre long tractor-trailers.

“We’ve been there ever since and we’ll probably be working on this into next week,”

Brooks said.