Six unserialized ghost guns and five pounds of narcotics came out of a home in the 11400 block of Winchell Street on Thursday, August 13, after Whittier Police SWAT officers and detectives served a search warrant that ended with three documented gang members booked into jail.
According to a Whittier Police Department Facebook post, detectives searching the property located the six unserialized firearms along with drug sales paraphernalia, including a digital scale and handgun ammunition. Photos accompanying the post show a Sig Sauer, a Smith digital scale, boxes of Winchester and USA Forged ammunition, and packaging labeled Sportsman's Guide. All three men taken into custody at the scene were transported to the Whittier Police Department jail for booking.
The raid fits a pattern the department has repeated across the Gateway Cities region this year. In June, Whittier officers stopped a vehicle near Los Nietos Park and, during a follow-up probation search, seized two loaded Polymer80 ghost guns, an illegally short-barreled rifle, ammunition and methamphetamine from a documented gang member, Hoodline previously reported. A month earlier, detectives and K9 units served a narcotics warrant in an unincorporated pocket near Santa Fe Springs that turned up 1.65 pounds of methamphetamine and three detentions, including a convicted felon with gang ties.
What California Law Says About Unserialized Firearms
The ghost guns recovered on Winchell Street fall under California Assembly Bill 1621, which amended Penal Code Section 23920 to make possessing any firearm or firearm precursor part lacking a valid serial number a misdemeanor offense starting January 1, 2024, according to legislative records tracked by LegiScan. The law was designed to tighten restrictions on untraceable firearm components and kit builds that have proliferated in recent years.
Statewide, the scale of the problem is significant. The California Department of Justice's annual statistical report, published in July, found that law enforcement agencies across the state recovered 46,288 unique crime guns in 2025, including 8,877 unserialized firearms and 6,940 specifically classified as ghost guns, according to the California Department of Justice. A 2024 academic study of crime gun recoveries in Los Angeles and San Diego found that 9mm Polymer80 handguns were the dominant type of privately made firearm seized, with Los Angeles recoveries showing a higher likelihood of involvement in violent and weapons offenses, per research published on PubMed Central.
Because the three men booked Thursday are described as documented gang members, any gang enhancement charges the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office pursues will face a higher legal bar than in years past. Under the STEP Forward Act, or Assembly Bill 333, which amended Penal Code Section 186.22 in January 2022, prosecutors must show that predicate offenses produced a tangible, non-reputational benefit to the gang and occurred within three years, according to legal analysis from Vic Nasser Law. It remains unresolved what formal charges, if any, the District Attorney's Office will file against the three individuals.
A Department in Transition
The Winchell Street operation also comes as the Whittier Police Department navigates a major organizational shift. The City of Santa Fe Springs notified Whittier in April that it will terminate its 33-year municipal policing contract effective February 29, 2028, as it builds a standalone police department, the City of Whittier confirmed. Santa Fe Springs has already named former LAPD officer and Montebello police chief Paul Espinosa as the founding chief of its new department ahead of the 2028 launch, according to the Norwalk Patriot.
Whittier Police currently field 125 sworn personnel, with 91 officers assigned to Whittier and 34 dedicated to Santa Fe Springs under the existing contract, per city records. That arrangement has been in place since 1995, and crime data cited by LA County Politics shows Santa Fe Springs logged 1,433 serious crimes in 2024, an 8% increase over the prior year driven partly by an 89% jump in robberies. Whether the Winchell Street property falls within Whittier or Santa Fe Springs jurisdiction, and what specific narcotics made up the five pounds seized, were not detailed in the department's announcement.
