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Police seize shotgun, ammunition and 'pipe bomb' from Nanaimo man during traffic stop

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A Nanaimo man is facing numerous charges after police allegedly found him in possession of multiple firearms and a pipe bomb during a traffic stop in July.

Nanaimo RCMP said in a news release Friday that 29-year-old Declan O'Reilly is facing seven firearms-related charges after the July 25 incident, though online court records show 10 charges against him, including nine that appear to be firearms related.

Mounties said an officer saw O'Reilly behind the wheel of a white Lexus on Townsite Road in Nanaimo at 8:40 p.m. on the day of the incident.

"The officer recognized the Lexus and the occupants, and knew that the individual driving the Lexus was prohibited from operating a motor vehicle," police said in their release.

The officer pulled the vehicle over and saw that the driver and a female passenger had switched seats, police said.

The woman was arrested for an existing court order prohibiting her from being with the driver, according to police. She was later released.

Police said the officer saw drug paraphernalia "in plain view" in the vehicle, and began a search, during which he found a bulletproof vest; a loaded, sawed-off, 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun; shotgun shells; two loaded rifle magazines; and "what appeared to be a pipe bomb."

The RCMP's Explosives Disposal Unit investigated and determined that the item was, in fact, an improvised explosive device, police said.

The unit detonated the bomb in a safe location, according to RCMP.

O'Reilly was released on an undertaking to appear in court.

Online court records show numerous charges against O'Reilly stemming from other incidents, the earliest of which occurred in April 2017.

The latest charges against O'Reilly have not been proven in court. He is scheduled to make his next appearance in Nanaimo provincial court on Sept. 28.

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