Santa Rosa police seize drugs, assault rifle from run-down building

A routine inspection by a Santa Rosa fire inspector led police to a stash of 135 pounds of marijuana and an AK-47 assault rifle in an aging commercial building, police said Friday.

An inspector issuing a cease- work order at 1905 Sebastopol Road at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday called police to report that people on the property were confrontational, police said in a release.

The inspector was investigating a building that had been turned into three makeshift bays used for automobile work, police said.

When police arrived, several people hid in the automotive bays, police said. Some complied with officers’ commands to come out, while others didn’t exit until more officers showed up, police said.

When officers entered one bay, they found a large amount of packaged marijuana in plain sight, police said. Narcotics detectives later got a search warrant for the buildings on the property and confiscated 135 pounds of marijuana, a pound of methamphetamine, an AK-47 assault rifle, a pistol and $3,000 in cash.

Castulo Guerrero, 39, was arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale, possession of an assault rifle and possession of methamphetamine. A jail official said Guerrero bailed out Thursday.

Guerrero’s connection to the property is unclear. Neither fire marshals nor Santa Rosa narcotics officers could be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

The property is in Roseland on the north side of Sebastopol Road squeezed between an AutoZone to the west and a large auto salvage yard to the east.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article contained an incorrect reference to a neighboring business. A shooting took place last year at ACME Automotive, down the block from where drugs and guns were seized on Sebastopol Road, not ACME Salvage, which is adjacent to the property. ACME Automotive has since closed.