Machine guns and child pornography discovery leads to charges against Orange County man

What began as an investigation into the illegal sale of a single military-grade laser sight turned into the arrest of an Orange County man for possession of a cache of weapons of war and sexually explicit child content.

Arthit Tanjapatkul, 43, was charged Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of Santa Ana with one count of possession of four machine guns and three counts of possession of child pornography stemming from the recovery of hundreds of videos and images of underage sexual content.

Tanjapatkul was arrested Oct. 9, the same day he was attempting to leave the country, according to an FBI affidavit attached to the criminal complaint. He is being held on a $250,000 bond. Tanjapatkul is next due in court for his arraignment Nov. 18.

A call to Tanjapatkul’s attorney was not immediately returned.

Tanjapatkul first came under suspicion of the FBI in March 2023 when the Santa Ana resident promoted and sold on Facebook and Facebook Messenger the military-grade laser sight, a device used for hunting or military purposes that projects a beam onto a target, for $3,250.

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The weapon was part of an estimated $2-million trove of military equipment stolen by former Army officer Bryan Allen while he was stationed at Ft. Bragg, N.C., according to the criminal complaint. Some of Allen’s pilfered equipment included 43 enhanced night vision goggles.

Allen was sentenced to 25 months in prison and ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution in 2020. Much of the equipment he stole has never been recovered, according to the FBI.

Between 2014 and 2019, Tanjapatkul sent 150 payments totaling $277,000 to Allen, according to an FBI affidavit.

When Tanjapatkul’s home was raided in October 2023, FBI agents, aided by Santa Ana police, seized 71 items of equipment, including four machine guns, dozens of other firearms and a cellphone in which Tanjapatkul discussed the weaponry with potential buyers. Officials also recovered a hard drive containing child pornography with individuals as young as 7, according to the affidavit.

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In July 2024, authorities searched a storage unit owned by Tanjapatkul and discovered 26 more firearms and an even larger haul of child pornography — 10 disks containing 79 videos and 831 images — of sexually abusive material of children.

In total, agents found dozens of firearms and hundreds of pieces of military equipment in Tanjapatkul’s possession.

Tanjapatkul said in his interview with the FBI that he considered himself a “collector, trader, and hoarder of gear,� according to the FBI affidavit. He said he believed some of his gear was legal and was surplus military and law enforcement equipment.

If convicted, he could face a maximum of 70 years in a federal prison.