A 30-year-old man has been charged with more than 70 offences after weapons, explosives and stolen property were discovered at a southeast Edmonton property where a bomb was detonated by police Tuesday night
Graham McCagherty has been charged with:
- 47 counts of possession of a prohibited device
- 12 counts of unsafe storage of a firearm
- 5 counts of possession of stolen property
- 4 counts of possession of a controlled substance
- 3 counts of possession of body armour without a valid permit
- possession of an explosive substance without lawful excuse
- possession of an explosive substance without exercising reasonable care
“This individual was known to police prior to this investigation and he was released following a bail hearing Wednesday evening,” Staff Sgt. Don Curle said Friday afternoon.
“The investigation had been going on for some time prior to Tuesday afternoon.”
The charges stem from an incident that unfolded in the area of 20 Avenue and 46 Street Tuesday afternoon that forced the evacuation of a portion of the Pollard Meadows neighbourhood.
READ MORE: Man facing charges after homemade bomb forces Mill Woods evacuation
Police were called to the area at around 2:30 p.m. to search a home and detached garage in relation to a drug and weapons investigation.
Police found an improvised explosive device (IED) and suspected commercial explosive inside the garage, which prompted officers to evacuate a one-block radius of the home.
The EPS Explosive Disposal Unit was called in to detonate the explosives. The blast could be heard throughout the neighbourhood at around 9 p.m. Police said the explosives were deemed too hazardous to transport.
“Essentially, we had industrial explosives that were being used for a criminal purpose,” Insp. Gary Godziuk with the Edmonton Police Service said Tuesday night.
“There’s a significant risk and fragmentation and blast pressure as a result of any sort of improvised explosive device and this was the case in this incident,” Sgt. Grant Jongejan with the EPS bomb unit explained Friday afternoon.
Jongejan said about one pound of explosives were found at the property, all of which had to be disposed of by police.
“It’s a seismic gel, so it’s a commercial product,” he said. “How do I describe how much ‘boom’ there is in a product like that? I mean, I would have to have some sort of a demonstration to actually depict that, but it’s significant. A pound of explosives is extremely significant.
“It wouldn’t probably take out a house but it would do significant damage if it was inside a residence. To give you some assemblance of understanding around that, a pound of explosives probably in this room is going to result in catastrophic injuries to people in an open area.”
Watch below: Police detonate bomb inside garage in southeast Edmonton Tuesday night
Police seized 12 firearms, including long barrel guns, sawed-off shotguns and handguns, from the property. Officers also seized prohibited silencers and suppressors, 28 prohibited ammunition storage and feeding devices, a large quantity of ammunition and body armour, two stolen skid steers and a stolen flat deck trailer.
“Obviously, all of these firearms are lethal,” Curle said. “We’re extremely pleased and happy to get this off the street and into our possession. As you all know there have been seizures similar to this in Edmonton and in other cities in Canada so I hesitate to call it precedent-setting, but we’re very pleased with it.”
Curle said some of the weapons recovered at the scene were stolen.
“Throughout the investigation we did believe that this individual did have access to weapons,” he said. “Like any investigation, we don’t know until we actually execute search warrants and actually get in and start searching. So the final tally, if you will, we didn’t know exactly what that would be until we had it.”
In relation to this investigation, police also searched a residence in the area of 39 Avenue and 76 Street on Tuesday, where small quantities of methamphetamine, hashish and heroin were seized. Officers also seized 50 grams of marijuana, 348 synthetic marijuana pills, drug scales, baggies and just over $3,000 cash from the property.
Two men were taken into custody in relation to the investigation. Police said one man, McCagherty, was charged as a result. The second man was not charged.
The explosion Tuesday night caused damage to the garage window. No one was injured and residents were allowed to return home by about 10 p.m.