LOS ANGELES – On July 22, 2020, a San Fernando Valley man was arrested on a series of weapons charges and a drug trafficking offense that alleges he possessed about 3.8 kilograms of heroin for sale.

At his arraignment  the next day, Edmond Tumasyan, 35, of Sun Valley, pleaded not guilty to charges contained in an 11-count federal grand jury indictment charging him with possession with intent to distribute heroin and the illegal possession of multiple firearms, including an AR-15-type rifle with no serial number (commonly referred to as a “ghost gun”), machine guns, handguns and silencers, many of them unregistered. The indictment also alleges that Tumasyan illegally possessed an unregistered 40mm grenade launcher.

The firearms seized from Tumasyan’s residence in 2019 were illegally possessed because some allegedly were used in furtherance of drug trafficking and because Tumasyan is a convicted felon, having been previously convicted of crimes involving burglary, false checks and narcotics.

Tumasyan was taken into custody by the Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force. The Task Force opened a federal case targeting Tumasyan in October 2019 following seizures made by the Glendale Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Tumasyan was ordered to stand trial on September 15. If convicted of the 11 charges in the indictment, Tumasyan would face a statutory maximum penalty of life in federal prison.

The case against Tumasyan is the result of an ongoing investigation by the Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force, which is made up of special agents with the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, as well as officers with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Glendale Police Department, and the California Department of Health Care Services.

“When local, state and federal agencies work together on investigations such as this, they can accomplish a lot of ground,” said California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA) President Alan Barcelona.  “I would imagine the community in which this suspect resides must be breathing a sigh of relief.”