A Somers Point man jailed in March after drugs intercepted by Homeland Security led to a cache of drugs and weapons inside his home now faces federal charges.
Michael John James, 30, faces one count of possessing unregistered machine guns and other firearms.
He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ann Marie Donio in Camden federal court last week, and was detained.
James had been in the Atlantic County Justice Facility since March, after Homeland Security found two FedEx packages were filled with pills sent from South Africa to his home, according to the affidavit previously obtained by BreakingAC.
A search of his Colwick Drive home led to 82 firearms, explosives and fireworks along with even more drugs, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Allison Eiselen told a Superior Court judge during a detention hearing in March.
The defense claimed James was a gun collector with a license to carry and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives permit.
"This was not a collector," Judge Patricia Wild said at the time. "This was a person who was amassing both an armory and a drug store, frankly."
Eiselen painted a picture of a man who had turned his home into "his armed fortress" with dangerous mixes of chemicals "strewn about" in unsafe conditions and a surveillance system that was next to a room with "racks of long guns (and) ammunition."
"We don’t know that any of these weapons were possessed unlawfully at this point," defense attorney Lou Pintaro said. "There is no restriction on the number of firearms that the man’s allowed to own."
The investigation was said to be ongoing at the time. Now, the federal charge has been added.
James was transferred out of the county jail Wednesday, and is apparently now in federal custody. The government does not usually release where defendants are being held prior to trial.
Among the recovered items were three operable machine guns, an operable weapon modified to be shorter than a standard rifle, an operable weapon modified to be shorter than a standard shotgun, and three silencers.
The possession of an unregistered machine gun or other firearm, as defined under the National Firearms Act, carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of as much as $250,000.
Sellinger credited special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Newark Field Division, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Ross A. Marchetti, for the investigation.
He also credited special agents of Homeland Security Investigations Newark, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge William S. Walker; personnel from the Atlantic City Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor William Reynolds; and officers of the Somers Point Police Department, under the direction of Chief Robert C. Somers, with the investigation leading to the arrest.
