SANTA CRUZ — The knock on the front door was not AVON calling.
On Friday, the Santa Cruz County Anti-Crime Team along with members of the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), Homeland Security, Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, The Santa Cruz Police Department, and Santa Cruz Auto Theft Reduction and Enforcement Team (SCARE) served a search warrant on the 1300 block of La Madrona Drive in Santa Cruz which netted five arrests.
Christopher Pijas
Arrested were 44-year-old Leif Kubina, 44-year-old Christopher Pijas, 34-year-old Carlos Martinez, 30-year-old Amber Fancher, 26-year-old Samantha Curtis — all of Santa Cruz.
The agencies served the warrant and found 20 firearms that included several antique rifles and three stolen rifles from local burglaries. They also recovered four handguns and two shotguns.
Carlos Martinez
Along with the weapons, numerous drugs — 15.3 grams of heroin, 0.9 grams of methamphetamine, and 17 growing marijuana plants — were also seized, in addition to one stolen vehicle and one off-road motorcycle.
Amber Fancher
“We served the search warrant based on information we received [regarding] the address,” SCCACT Supervisor Peter Hansen said, “Any time we recover stolen weapons from a residential burglary and arrest five individuals for drug use, [it’s a big deal].”
All five were arrested and transported to Santa Cruz County Jail and booked on Charges of prohibited subject in possession of a firearm, possession of a loaded firearm while in possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance for sale, possession of stolen property, maintaining a place for use of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, under the influence of a controlled substance, and probation violations.
Samantha Curtis
Read more:
Santa Cruz Sentinel: Authorities find cache of drugs, weapons in Santa Cruz home
