Authorities: Thousands of guns seized in South Carolina

They believe they are all stolen from area counties.

“And that was considered an arsenal”, Brooks said.

PAGELAND, S.C. (AP) — Authorities say they have seized thousands of guns from a house and warehouse in South Carolina.

Detectives said they found even more stolen guns in the liquor store they said Nicholson owned with his father and in his father’s home.

“By any estimate that’s a sizeable number of guns”, Berry said.

CNN reports that police also found over 150 chainsaws and more than 250 taxidermy mounts.

WBTV reported Nicholson had been arrested and charged with trafficking opium and heroin earlier in the week in Union County. “There’s much more to come”, he added.

Chesterfield County sheriff’s deputies arrested Brent Nicholson, 51, of Pageland Saturday.

South Carolina Law Enforcement Division spokesman Thom Berry said a dozen agents from his agency were sent to help the Chesterfield County sheriff.

The discovery was made when deputies arrived at Nicholson’s house Friday about 3 p.m.to serve a subpoena for an unrelated matter, Brooks said. “They secured the scene and called everybody in. It’s their case, but we are continuing to work with them”.

The sheriff said numerous guns looked like they’d been stored for years.

Authorities said they received a tip, got a search warrant and found nearly 10,000 guns.

But they don’t think he was re-selling them.

Investigators believe he was buying the stolen guns and hoarding them.