Global Courant
Los Angeles Police Department seized £38,000 of illegal fireworks from a South Los Angeles warehouse on Wednesday — and this time it didn’t blow up a neighborhood.
The major fireworks seizure and updated policy comes after the LAPD blew up a South LA neighborhood in June 2021 while attempting to detonate a cache of fireworks, injuring 17 people, damaging 35 properties and displacing dozens of residents hit.
The LAPD’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal clears boxes of illegal fireworks.
(Los Angeles Police Department)
The Los Angeles Fire Department was fire chief performing a routine inspection of commercial buildings at about 3 p.m. Wednesday at the 900 block of East 61st Street Florenceaccording to a press release from the LAPD.
The marshals noticed a large number of fireworks in a storage area and alerted the LAPD, who responded and notified the department’s bomb call.
Investigators from the Bomb Division and Major Crimes Division seized the 38,000 pounds of “commercial firecrackers,” according to the LAPD.
After questioning people in the building, officers arrested Lorenzo Ponce, 64, and Diego Ponce, 35, both residents of Los Angeles, for possession of more than 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks.
The fireworks were on dragged away by large rigs and box trucks because detonation is required off-site under updated LAPD policies, KCBS-TV Channel 2 News reported.
“Our officers carefully remove these hazardous materials and prepare them for transportation, continuing their efforts to keep our community members and local businesses safe,” the LAPD social media post on Twitter read.
Earlier today, the LAPD’s Bomb Squad responded to the 900 block of East 61st St. for a major firecracker seizure. Our officers carefully remove and prepare these hazardous materials for transport, continuing their efforts to keep our community members and local businesses safe pic.twitter.com/YhTehbNakC
— LAPD Headquarters (@LAPDHQ) June 8, 2023
