San Jose: Police arrest two, seize 38,000 pounds in illegal fireworks after storage facility fire
Investigators obtained and executed multiple search warrants over several days, making several seizures and leading up to the arrest of both suspects on Thursday, police said.
SAN JOSE — Police announced Friday that they had arrested two people and seized some 38,000 pounds of illegal fireworks, along with drugs and cash, as part of an investigation into a June 14 fire that caused major damage at a Public Storage facility.
In a news release, San Jose police said that they had arrested Anthony Dasilva, 45, and Nathaniel Valassis, 25, both of San Jose, on Thursday. The men were being held on suspicion of “various crimes,” police said.
The fire began around 6 p.m. at the facility at 88 Blossom Hill Road, near Monterey Highway, with firefighters sounding three alarms and taking some seven hours to bring the flames under control. A San Jose Fire spokesperson said about an hour after the fire started that “there are audible explosions coming from the building.”
Authorities said that initial reports suggested that illegal fireworks had ignited inside a storage unit, kicking off the blaze. As the fireworks caught and exploded, the fire quickly spread, making the building a total loss.
As they gathered information, San Jose Fire arson investigators began working with the police department’s Assaults Unit to learn more the blaze and the suspected fireworks cache, officials said. Authorities said they identified two suspects, then linked them to other storage units that contained illegal fireworks.
Investigators obtained and executed multiple search warrants over several days, leading up to the arrest of both suspects on Thursday, police said. Authorities had said they had detained a person of interest the day after the blaze; it was not clear Friday if that statement referred to either of the men arrested this week.
The investigation yielded about 38,000 pounds of illegal fireworks, officials said, as well as almost a pound of methamphetamine, over 200 grams of cocaine packaged for sale, an unspecified amount of cannabis, almost $5,000 in cash and one semi-automatic firearm.
Anyone with information about the investigation is asked to contact police via email at 4774@sanjoseca.gov or 4258@sanjoseca.gov or to call 408-277-4161. Tips can be submitted anonymously at 408-947-7867, or on www.svcrimestoppers.org.