Feds seized nearly 1,500 guns in raid

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A federal search warrant affidavit outlines the massive raid that seized nearly 1,500 firearms from the home and business of an Albuquerque man and why the feds were after him.

Last week rifles lined the lawn of a northeast Albuquerque home that belonged to Robert Adams. Homeland Security Investigations was also busy loading hundreds of handguns into boxes.

It took federal agents days to log every weapon seized into evidence.

Four search warrants filed Thursday show the HSI investigators seized nearly 900 firearms from Adams' home. There were 548 handguns and 317 rifles listed in the warrant return inventory.

They also searched his office that day taking 599 pistols and revolvers.

Adams has not been charged with any crimes although Homeland Security said the investigation is not over yet.

Neighbors said Adams was a gun collector, and some heard he was a licensed gun seller, too.

Federal investigators confirm that. However, they're also investigating him for possible gun smuggling, tax evasion and violating importation laws.

Court documents reveal federal agents were watching Adams for years and that some documentation was missing "to determine to whom Adams [was] selling or exporting his firearms."

The guns were also not properly marked possibly to make the guns more valuable and to avoid paying high import taxes, investigators alleged.

However, a bigger concern is that no markings on the guns and missing documents mean the guns are not traceable by law enforcement.

One neighbor who did not want to be identified said it was a shock.

“I didn’t really see the guns but from a distance," the neighbor said.  "I saw them being pulling them out into the front yard.

“Its very scary in the fact that the school is so close by makes it seem even more dangerous.”

The search warrant also said Adams was investigated in Canada for keeping about 80 illegal guns in a storage unit. U.S. agents worked with Canadian police on that case.