Police seize ‘more than 1,000’ guns from California mansion

The guns were found after an anonymous tip was called into police

(AP)

Police have seized more than 1,000 guns from a mansion in California, where photographs and video show guns stacked on top of one another in a line that extends the length of several cars.

The guns were found on Wednesday in the upscale Holmby Hills neighbourhood, where law enforcement described a property resembling a “hoarder’s house” that kept 30 officers busy for 15 hours as all of the firearms were removed from the mansion.

The search was initiated by Los Angeles Police officers and agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), who served up a search warrant in the suspicion that someone was manufacturing or selling illegal firearms, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Police arrested 57-year-old Girard Saenz at the house, which also had stockpiles of ammunition sitting around.

Mr Saenz, who has been accused of violating California laws on owning assault weapons and machine gun rifles.

State law prohibits the manufacture, distribution, transportation, importation, and sale of any assault rifle or .50 Browning Machine Gun rifles, except under certain rare circumstances.

Mr Sanez was released after his arrest on $50,000 bail, and details of that release were not immediately made public.

ATF spokesperson Ginger Colbrun told CNN in a written statement that law enforcement received an anonymous tip about the stockpile indicating that someone was “conducting illegal firearms transaction outside the scope of the federal firearm license”.

There was also equipment to manufacture firearms at the home.

The bust comes roughly four years after police seized 1,200 guns and seven tons of ammunition from a home, alongside $230,000 in cash after a man died of natural causes in his SUV. It was then the largest seizure from a single home.