Man arrested for alleged threats at plant

An unidentified 43-year-old Laguna Niguel man who allegedly owned an arsenal of weapons and ammunition was arrested Tuesday after making suspected terrorist threats against former colleagues at the San Onofre nuclear plant.

Investigators said they found about 270 weapons--including four hand grenades--and up to 5,000 rounds of ammunition at the man’s home and in a rented San Juan Capistrano storage facility.

“Any time you have a terrorist threat, you have to see if it could be carried out,� said sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino. “With over 250 weapons and ammo and four inert hand grenades that he could easily arm, he definitely had the ability to carry out the threat.�

While searching the storage garage, two Orange County sheriff’s deputies were overcome by noxious yellow vapor. The deputies, who were not identified, were treated and released from Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center after suffering what they described as an “irritation that was almost like tear gas,� said Sheriff’s Lt. Colin Murphy.

Amormino could not say what job the suspect had held at the plant, nor when he had been fired. But he said the man had been barred from the nuclear facility and his picture was posted at security gates.

Plant security officials called sheriff’s deputies about 9 a.m. Tuesday to report that the man had made a series of telephone calls threatening to kill former colleagues and bosses, officials said.

That launched an investigation that led to the issuance of arrest and search warrants that were served at the man’s home late Tuesday afternoon, officials said. There, they said, they found suspected narcotics and 54 weapons, many of them unregistered and illegal.

Investigators then obtained a search warrant for the storage locker, where they found 215 weapons and up to 5,000 rounds of ammunition.

The suspect was being held in the Orange County Men’s Central Jail in Santa Ana.