Stockpile of thousands of illegal weapons seized from East Bay knife shop, owner arrested

DUBLIN — The owner of a Dublin knife store was arrested after police located thousands of illegal weapons stockpiled inside his business, home and a nearby storage unit, authorities said Friday.

On Aug. 11, Dublin Police began investigating the distribution of illegal weapons from Dublin Knives, a business in the 6500 block of Dublin Boulevard.

After detectives obtained a search warrant for Dublin Knives — located northeast of the intersection of interstates 580 and 680 — police allegedly found more than 2,000 illegal switchblade knives, approximately 40 rifles and handguns, 245 sets of brass knuckles, four cane swords, body armor and various other weapons.

The business owner, 51-year-old Deepak Chopra of Livermore, was arrested for several charges, including possession of illegal firearms and child endangerment, according to a statement released Friday.

Police said a search of Chopra’s Livermore home located an additional 19 rifles, 25 assault rifles, more than 50 high-capacity magazines, .30-caliber machine gun parts and a jig used to manufacture non-serialized firearms, otherwise known as “ghost guns.”

On Thursday, police discovered a Livermore storage unit belonging to Chopra and obtained another search warrant, which yielded more than 50 rifles, 30 handguns and a .30 caliber fully-automatic machine gun.

It’s unclear when and where Chopra was booked into custody. Authorities could not be reached for clarification Saturday.