A New Jersey man was busted for stashing a “large cache of illegal firearms” in the crawl space of his home, thanks in part to his social media posts in gun enthusiast groups, police said.
The Totowa Police Department launched its investigation into 35-year-old Kyle Arena earlier this week, after they received an anonymous email detailing some of his “reckless activity with firearms,” authorities said in a press release on Thursday. The tip came complete with screenshots of comments and images shared on Facebook, including a “photo of a person pointing a gun out of a window while driving a car” and several others showing “illegal items like silencers.”
Authorities scoured online gun group pages to verify the tip as part of their probe, which culminated in a judge issuing a Temporary Extreme Risk Protection Order or TERPO. The directive allows authorities to to search for and temporarily seize all firearms, ammunition and other dangerous items such as knives, police said.
A subsequent search of Arena’s home, where he lives with his parents, turned up “129 fully-loaded illegal high-capacity magazines, thousands of rounds of ammunitions, several illegal sharp-edged weapons, ballistic body armor, a helmet, and parts used to build and alter firearms,” police said, adding that they also confiscated four explosive devices.
Arena was arrested on Tuesday and faces a series of charges related to the possession and distribution of firearms and explosives.
Arena’s father, 66-year-old Felix Arena, was also taken into custody on counts of disorderly conduct, terroristic threats, and resisting arrest. He was released from custody pending his first court appearance.