ARSENAL FOUND IN BUTLER, PA HOME

Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 1:09 PM
Subject: [MW] PA - Pre-Dawn Raid, Home, 410 Guns (Radovich/Nazi-Themed
Patches, Swastikas)


http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleyindependent/teenscene/s_551346.htm
l

Pre-dawn raid on Butler home hauls in 410 guns
By Jill King Greenwood and Bobby Kerlik
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, February 8, 2008

The guns inside the yellow house on Sixth Avenue in Butler covered
"every room, every floor, every surface," a federal agent said
Thursday.


"There are guns everywhere in that house," said Thomas Stankiewicz,
assistant special agent in charge of the Philadelphia field office of
the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
"Sorting this out will be a monumental task. It's going to take a long
time."

Federal agents and local police said they seized 410 guns, most of them
loaded, and thousands of rounds of ammunition from the home of Curt
Radovich, 39, and charged him with illegally possessing and selling the
weapons. The take included about a dozen guns stashed in his purple
Plymouth Voyager, where officers found Nazi-themed patches, collector's
pins emblazoned with swastikas and flags.

Radovich was taken from the house he shares with his wife and two
teenage daughters during the 6 a.m. raid. He was released on a $10,000
unsecured bond following a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Amy
Hay,
Downtown, on charges of dealing in firearms without a license, selling
weapons to a felon and possessing a firearm as a felon.

He and his attorney declined to comment.

The guns ranged from high-powered rifles to pistols.

Stankiewicz said the raid was the culmination of an undercover sting by
the ATF, state police, Westmoreland County District Attorney's Office
detectives and Greensburg police. Investigators believe Radovich bought
the weapons at gun shows, flea markets and on the Internet. He likely
found buyers in the same places, police said.

According to an affidavit, Radovich met with a confidential informant
and two undercover officers at a Greensburg hotel and brought handguns
in a white plastic bag. The informant told Radovich he was a convicted
felon and not allowed to have guns, but Radovich sold him a 9 mm pistol
for $365, investigators said. An undercover officer bought a
.32-caliber
Mauser for $225.

Radovich told the men he buys weapons at gun shows and paperwork isn't
a
priority, the affidavit said. At second and third meetings, he sold the
informant and undercover officers more guns -- each time telling the
men
he had plenty of guns, the affidavit said.

Agents believe Radovich was selling guns from his home for years,
Stankiewicz said. He seemed "very surprised" when agents showed up,
Stankiewicz said.

More than a dozen ATF agents spent hours cataloging weapons and boxes
of
ammunition. They will try to determine whether the guns were reported
stolen, where he bought them and whether they've been used in crimes,
Stankiewicz said.

"He's kept no records and no paperwork and hasn't checked the
backgrounds of who he was selling these weapons to," Stankiewicz said.
"He had no regard for the law at all."

Court records show Radovich was convicted of aggravated assault in
Butler County in 1991, a felony offense making it illegal for him to
carry a firearm.

Neighbors along the narrow street of single-family homes said they
didn't know Radovich or his family well, and were surprised to learn he
had so many weapons.

Radovich faces a preliminary hearing Tuesday.