POLICE SEIZE WEAPONS AND DRUGS

Two Men Arrested In Raid Culminating Investigation Into Reported Narcotics
Dealing In Fontana.

FONTANA -- Police on Monday displayed the results of an investigation into
weapons and drug dealing across the street from an elementary school.

Investigators with the Fontana police gang unit made two arrests and seized
40 guns, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, a high-end bulletproof vest and 10
pounds of finished methamphetamine.

Police said they believe the men under arrest -- Andy Valadez and William
Beauchamp -- were involved in the highly lucrative business of selling
drugs and guns to gang members. The weapons, at least a dozen of which were
stolen, were worth about $100,000.

"We feel we severely crippled a major gun distribution ring," Fontana Cpl.
Obie Rodriguez said.

Among the weapons seized were several assault rifles that have been banned
in California since the late 1980s. Some were mounted with bayonets, others
had been illegally modified and could rip through any officer's bulletproof
vest.

Officers are especially proud because the apartment complex where they
found a working methamphetamine lab and two handguns was across the street
from South Tamarind Elementary School.

"That close to a school, having that many weapons is extremely dangerous,"
Officer Billy Green said. "They were manufacturing drugs during school
hours. That could have resulted in anything from a large structure fire to
a major explosion."

Officers were first tipped off to the drug trafficking at the apartment, in
the 8500 block of Tamarind Avenue, by a concerned neighbor. The neighbor
called police anonymously several weeks ago to report seeing people coming
and going from the apartment at all hours. The informant suspected that
methamphetamine was being manufactured and sold, and also believed the two
suspects kept a large cache of weapons.

The case was assigned to the 10-officer SMASH unit, which handles gang and
drug cases and other in-depth investigations. Members of the SMASH unit --
short for San Bernardino Movement Against Street Hoodlums -- began doing
surveillance of the apartment, Green said.

Green personally witnessed a hand-to-hand drug deal, and others reported
seeing weapons changing hands. Police learned that the occupants of the
apartment kept five storage units at a nearby self-storage company under a
family member's name, Green said.

By Saturday night, officers felt they had enough probable cause to get
search warrants and move in on the storage units and the apartment
building, Green said.

Valadez, 23, and Beauchamp, 29, both left the apartment, and police saw an
opportunity to search the apartment without risk of creating a stand-off.
They went to the home of Judge Donna Garza about midnight -- she was awake
- -- and got her to sign the search warrants. As they were retrieving the
warrants, the surveillance officers reported that Beauchamp and Valadez had
returned. The officers were told to detain them and wait for the search
warrants to arrive.

Both were arrested without incident.

In the home, police found a functioning meth lab, two guns and $3,000 in
cash. In the storage units, they found three more meth labs in boxes, 17
rifles and 18 handguns.

The handguns ranged in size from .45-caliber down to a .22-caliber two-shot
Derringer. Included among the rifles were several that have no legal use
outside of a war zone.

"It'd be pretty devastating to a patrol officer to run into this on the
street," said Officer David Lally, as he displayed a SIG AMT rifle with a
pistol grip.

Valadez and Beauchamp are being held at West Valley Detention Center in
Rancho Cucamonga on $600,000 bail each. Both are expected to be charged
with possession of methamphetamine for sale, manufacturing methamphetamine
and several gun charges. Prosecutors may also choose to file enhancements
because of the proximity of the school.

"We believe, and we hope in our heart of hearts, we made an impact," Green
said. "It's an extremely good feeling. We all became policemen to make a
difference."