Watsonville officers seize multiple illegal firearms

Officers with the Watsonville Police Department have taken away illegal firearms from multiple people.

They say the majority of the guns were recovered following a two-week investigation into the manufacturing of automatic weapons.

Thursday on n Eucalyptus Drive, officers and deputies found seven illegally possessed firearms, ammunition and a bulletproof vest.

19-year-old Manuel Cruz was arrested and is now facing several gun charges. One of the recovered firearms was an unregistered, fully automatic AK-47 assault rifle. None of the guns were registered to Cruz.

Hours later, a patrol officer working the night shift was doing a regular area check of the Green Valley Cinema parking lot when he came across a group of loiterers.

As the officer approached the group, 19-year-old Robert Bengard tossed a firearm behind a dumpster. He was detained and officers found a loaded, fully automatic glock handgun during their search.

Bengard was arrested and booked into Santa Cruz County Jail for possession of a loaded machine gun.

And on Saturday morning, a traffic stop in the area of Riverside Drive and Main Street led to a gun and drug bust.

The driver, Marco Sanchez, had two warrants for his arrest for narcotics charges out of Santa Clara County. WPD officers arrested Sanchez on scene. As officers searched his vehicle, they found a handgun, a replica firearm, and a backpack with meth, heroin, cocaine and a scale inside.

His passenger, Lizette Reynoso is also facing charges for possession of a firearm and possession of narcotics for sale.