Ore. deputies seize nearly 400 guns in agency’s largest-ever seizure

Officials executed a search warrant at a home and found 337 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and high-capacity magazines

August 13, 2021 03:48 PM

CLACKAMAS COUNTY, Ore. — Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies seized nearly 400 firearms in back-to-back busts in recent months, one of which was the largest weapons seizure in the agency’s history.

Officials executed a search warrant July 29 at a Clackamas County home and found 337 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and high-capacity magazines. Deputies also found methamphetamine inside the home, officials said.

The bust was the largest weapons seizure in Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office’s history, according to officials. The agency has not disclosed the address of the home.

A little over a month earlier, deputies found 44 firearms inside a Gresham man’s home, along with drugs worth an estimated $20,000.

“We are seeing an epidemic of guns and drugs on the streets, including residential neighborhoods, of Multnomah County that we have not seen in recent memory,” Sgt. Matt Ferguson, a member of the sheriff’s office’s Dangerous Drug Team, said in a statement.

Deputies arrested 42-year-old Lonnie Sahm as part of a months-long drug investigation June 14. While Sahm was in custody, deputies noticed him emptying his pockets of plastic packages that contained blue pills, according to the sheriff’s office.

The agency said Sahm told deputies the drugs, which were packaged and ready for sale, were fentanyl.

Deputies returned to search his home, which is near Northeast 192and Avenue and Halsey Street, and an associated storage unit.

Within the house, garage and storage unit, deputies said they found 44 firearms, including the two military-grade machine guns that were found inside a hidden compartment. Deputies also found more than 5,000 rounds of ammunition, including high-capacity magazines, drums and belts, according to the sheriff’s office.

The search also yielded more than 1,000 grams of methamphetamine, drug packaging materials and 500 fentanyl pills, deputies said. The seized drugs were estimated to have a street value of $20,000, officials said.

Sahm told deputies that he was in a gang and that he knew he was not allowed to possess firearms as a convicted felon.

Sahm was arraigned June 15 in Multnomah County Circuit Court on 11 counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of unlawful delivery of methamphetamine, according to court documents.