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http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/c...ug07,0,4741768.story?coll=bal-local-headlines
http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/c...ug07,0,4741768.story?coll=bal-local-headlines
17 unregistered machine guns found; Carroll man arrested
Firearms dealer says he is victim of discrimination
By Athima Chansanchai
Sun Staff
Originally published August 7, 2003
A Carroll County man who helped police break up an unrealized murder plot by purported cultists in 2001 now faces charges, after state investigators said they found 17 unregistered machine guns at his home - including two loaded machine guns found next to a sleeping 12-year-old girl.
State police announced yesterday that Amir H. Tabassi, 55, of the 5400 block of Ridge Road in Mount Airy was arrested on three misdemeanor charges: possession of an unregistered machine gun, allowing an unsupervised minor access to a loaded firearm and carrying a loaded firearm. Additional charges are pending, authorities said.
Tabassi, who was released yesterday afternoon from the Carroll County Detention Center on $25,000 bail, could be sentenced to 10 years in prison, if convicted, for each illegally possessed gun.
"This is a really unusual find for us and a significant violation of Maryland handgun law," Maryland State Police Superintendent Edward T. Norris said at a news conference at the Waterloo barracks. He stood behind a table displaying 17 machine guns and 11 handguns - some of the 87 weapons seized from Tabassi's home.
Norris said that even though Tabassi held valid state and federal firearms dealer licenses, he was not exempt from registering his weapons. "Given the level of what we've found - all of these are fully automatic - in a post 9/11 world, it raises our suspicions," the superintendent said. Norris said that possible links to terrorism weren't being ruled out. Tabassi, a U.S. citizen, was born in Iran.
In an interview from his home last night, Tabassi said the charges were a result of discrimination. "This is America. The last I looked people weren't discriminated against because of their religion or race, but I guess I'm wrong," he said.
He said state police had "ransacked" his home and were "lying through their teeth" about the allegations. All his firearms are registered and were locked in his gun shop and his bedroom, he said. When he went to see state police for what he thought was a job orientation as an agent with Homeland Security - it turned out to be his arrest - his bedroom door was locked, he added.
"I am only loyal to one country: the United States," Tabassi said. "What kind of ties do I have with terrorists? This is baloney. This was not fair."
Tabassi was in the news in 2001 after leading police to a conspiracy to commit murder involving Scott Caruthers and other members of Beta Dominion Xenophilia, a Carroll County group that reputedly believed Caruthers was a space alien and a messiah who would save followers from catastrophic "Earth changes."
Tabassi, a former bodyguard for Caruthers, went to state police after he said group members solicited him to commit the killings. Five group members, including Caruthers, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to kill "enemies" of the group.
Yesterday, at a morning bail review hearing in Carroll County District Court, Tabassi interrupted his lawyer, Fred S. Hecker, and adamantly told Judge Marc G. Rasinsky that he operates a gun dealership from his home and is in lawful possession of the weapons.
"My home is a legitimate gun dealership," Tabbasi said on a video feed from the detention center. "I have done business with the ATF ... and Maryland State Police. The downstairs is licensed and zoned for that."
In arguing for bail to remain at $250,000, prosecutor Allan Culver said houses with so many machine guns "are a danger to the community."
Rasinsky lowered Tabassi's bail to 10 percent of $25,000.
Later at the news conference, state police confirmed that Tabassi's basement is licensed as a gun dealership and that he has held a firearms dealer license since 1993. But they said that 17 machine guns found at his split-level home were unregistered and unsecured, and they denied doing business with him.
Cpl. Frank Lopez said Tabassi had been under investigation by the firearms enforcement section of the state police since early last month. Authorities were tipped off that Tabassi may have been in possession of an unregistered machine gun, Lopez said.
State police took him to the Westminster barracks for questioning late Tuesday morning. After serving Tabassi with a search warrant on his 1992 Mazda Protege, state police found a loaded .40-caliber Glock pistol in a fanny pack on the front seat. Tabassi had a Maryland permit to carry a handgun, but it had expired, police said.
State police took Tabassi back to his home, where they served another search warrant, Lopez said. They found a girl, the sister of a woman who was visiting Tabassi, sleeping in a bedroom. On the bed next to her were two loaded H&K MP5 machine guns and a loaded Glock pistol, police said.
Anyone who acquires a machine gun must register the weapon within 24 hours and renew that registration annually, state police said. Dealers are not exempt.
Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun
