A 15-year-old Newport Beach boy was detained after a sting operation led to the seizure of more than 51 pounds of illegal fireworks, two M-80s, four M-1000s (also known as “quarter sticks”) and 20 M-5000s (also known as “half sticks”).
After being processed at the Newport Beach city jail Sunday, the juvie was released to the custody of his parents.
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The Newport Beach Police Department had been contacted by the Los Angeles County Fire Department, whose Arson Unit arrested an illegal fireworks manufacturer in Glendora.
The investigation uncovered a Craigslist ad showing similar illegal fireworks for sale in the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa area, according to a statement from Newport Beach Police. The ad included this picture depicting a M-80, M-1000 and M-5000:
Undercover LA County Fire personnel, assisted by Newport Beach cops, the Fire Department and the Orange County sheriff's Bomb Squad, contacted the advertiser and arranged a “buy.”
The 51 pounds of illegal fireworks were then seized from a residence on King's Road, while the destructive explosive devices were taken from a home on Residencia, according to police.
An M-80 can damage fingers, hands and eyes, while the risk factor for M-1000s range from “extremely severe injuries to body” to “death,” according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.