British Columbia: Man sentenced after police seize ‘arsenal of ruinously destructive potential’


A 49-year-old Vancouver Island man will spend the next several years behind bars after he was caught with what a B.C. Supreme Court judge described as a “highly illegal arsenal of ruinously destructive potential.”

The arsenal, described by the judge at the man’s sentencing hearing last month, included 19 guns, a pipe bomb, detonation cord and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Joseph Michael Mark Walczak pleaded guilty to more than a dozen weapons offences after Mounties raided his Port Alberni apartment in March 2024.

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Source: CTV News


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