Prison guard charged over weapons stash at home
A raid on a correctional officer’s Lithgow home allegedly uncovered rifles, handguns, gas masks, knuckledusters, handcuffs and more.
Police & Courts
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Police believe a senior corrections officer who hoarded a trove of military-style rifles, handguns, armour and other weapons may have bought his lethal stash online.
Adam James Smith, 33, was arrested at the minimum-security correctional centre near Bathurst where he worked at 1.20pm on Wednesday and taken to Lithgow Police Station.
He was later charged with 37 offences: 10 counts of possessing an unauthorised firearm, eight counts of possessing an unauthorised prohibited firearm, 13 counts of possessing a prohibited weapon without a permit, five counts of possessing ammunition without holding a licence/permit/authority and one count of goods in custody suspected of being stolen on premises.
Robbery and Serious Crime Squad commander detective Acting Superintendent Grant Taylor said police had uncovered an extensive stash of weapons plus the rifles and handguns during a raid at Smith’s home in Vale of Clwydd, outside Lithgow.
“As a result of searching these premises, police located a large array of weaponry and ammunition, including such things as tasers, ballistic vests, batons, OC spray and other assorted items such as knuckle dusters and gas masks,” Dep Supt Taylor said.
“All these firearms are yet to be fully examined but predominantly they consist of replica firearms, gel blaster style firearms, firearm parts and other gas-propelled firearms.”
He said while most were believed to be replicas, investigators were “greatly concerned” about the calibre of weapons Smith had collected.
“These styles of weapons, irrespective of whether they are or aren’t full operational firearms they’re a great concern to us,” Dep Supt Taylor said.
“These sorts of weapons are used in armed robberies and it’s very difficult to detect whether they are an operational firearm or not.”
There is no suggestion Smith intended to engage in any criminal activity with the weapons.
Det Supt Taylor said police were investigating how Smith, 33, had managed to get his hands on the weapons.
“There’s no absolute identification of where they’ve come from, but suffice to say there’s many online platforms that people do pursue to get firearms of this kind into the country,” he said
“And we’re very happy to get those guns off the streets.”
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