{"id":152420,"date":"2026-01-28T00:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T00:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/152420\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T00:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T00:19:08","slug":"central-valley-man-arrested-by-san-jose-police-for-alleged-illegal-weapons-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/152420\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Valley man arrested by San Jose police for alleged illegal weapons sales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Central Valley man described by authorities as one of the state&#8217;s &#8220;most prolific and dangerous&#8221; firearms traffickers has been arrested, according to San Jose police.<\/p>\n<p>The suspect, identified as 20-year-old Kenneth Tafoya of Lockeford, was arrested in Stockton on Jan. 14, with the help of the California Highway Patrol and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The apprehension of one of California&#8217;s most prolific and dangerous firearms traffickers was made possible with the support of various outstanding units with the San Jos\u00e9 Police Department, as well as partner law enforcement agencies,&#8221; police <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sjpd.org\/Home\/Components\/News\/News\/2643\/262\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On Nov. 15, 2025, detectives from the San Jose police Gun and Hazardous Offender Suppression Team (GHOST) followed up on a tip provided by the Santa Clara County Adult Probation Office.<\/p>\n<p>Detectives investigated the importation, manufacturing, sales and distribution of firearms, including machine guns, privately manufactured firearms commonly known as &#8220;ghost guns,&#8221; rifles, assault weapons and shotguns. The investigation covered San Jose, surrounding Bay Area counties, along with the Central Valley and Northern California.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators said they identified Tafoya as the primary suspect. Tafoya allegedly imported at least 1,700 machine gun conversionary devices, also known as &#8220;Glock Switches,&#8221; between February and November of last year.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-wdok\/media\/1366621\/dl?inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Department of Justice<\/a>, the devices convert semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic ones and are classified as a machine gun under federal law.<\/p>\n<p>With the help of the Santa Clara County Gun Violence Task Force, detectives obtained arrest and search warrants. <\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/san-jose-gun-arrest-012726.jpg#.jpeg\" alt=\"san-jose-gun-arrest-012726.jpg \" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  Items that police said were seized in connection with a firearms trafficking investigation. The primary suspect, identified as Kenneth Tafoya of Lockeford, was arrested on Jan. 14, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>                San Jose Police Department.<\/p>\n<p>A search of the suspect&#8217;s residences yielded a conversionary device, one shotgun and one pistol, along with live ammunition, firearm manufacturing precursor materials, magazines and spent casings.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Through diligent investigation and strong partnerships, our officers dismantled a dangerous operation, preventing these weapons from falling into the wrong hands and causing further harm,&#8221; police chief Paul Joseph said.<\/p>\n<p>Tafoya was booked into the Santa Clara County Jail on multiple firearm-related offenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n        More from CBS News\n      <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Central Valley man described by authorities as one of the state&#8217;s &#8220;most prolific and dangerous&#8221; firearms traffickers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[14227,1790,13722,88,90,89,2125,483],"class_list":["post-152420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-ghost-guns","tag-gun","tag-san-joaquin-county","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-police-department","tag-stockton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}