Mark Tyson
Member
Lakewood, Colo. police display a cache of weapons found inside a home used as a meth lab Tuesday. There were 17 weapons, including an illegal, fully automatic machine gun, 9 semi-automatic assault rifles, an Uzi, Glocks, Rugers and other weapons.
Weapons, Bulletproof Vests, Old Cop Car Found in Colo. Meth Bust
11/19/2003
Man to Spend 30 Years in Prison
Story by thedenverchannel.com
LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- A Lakewood man was sentenced to 30 years in prison after a drug task force busted him for running a methamphetamine lab and then found an arsenal of weapons in his home.
After the sentencing Tuesday morning, Jefferson County authorities showed off the cache of weapons found in Jamie Hoover's rented home on the 1100 block of Urban Street.
There were 17 weapons, including an illegal, fully automatic machine gun, nine semiautomatic assault rifles, an Uzi, Glocks, Rugers and other weapons, said Pam Russell with the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office.
Hoover also had a large stash of ammunition that included banana clips for the semiautomatic weapons that were taped together, head to toe, for ease of changing the clip, the West Metro Drug Task Force said.
"This is great police work as well as luck. We got the bad guy before bad things could happen," said George Brauchler, deputy district attorney for Jefferson County.
The West Metro Drug Task Force also found two bulletproof vests in the house that Hoover said were for protecting him from the police. Hoover also drove a Crown Victoria, formerly an Aurora police car, with a false faceplate in the dash. The radio was removed and Hoover used this area to stored guns and weapons, police said.
Hoover, 30, was arrested in Lakewood on Nov. 26, 2002, during a meth lab bust.
During the search of his home, agents also found live video cameras pointing to various entrances to the house.
Police officers were tipped that drugs were being sold out of the house and believed weapons to be involved, but had not expected such a sizeable arsenal, Russell said.
Hoover admitted using and selling drugs and he said he knew the weapons he had were illegal. He further admitted to purchasing many of these weapons, and others, illegally, through "straw purchases," where someone's name other than the buyer's is used because the buyer cannot pass the background check, authorities said.
Hoover pleaded guilty to manufacturing a controlled substance and one special offender count (a sentence enhancer as a result of having even one weapon while in possession of schedule two controlled substances) on Sept. 3.