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What started as a 6:30 a.m. drug raid on the 2600 block of Thompson Street is now part of a much larger investigation.
According to sources, 31-year-old Nick Suozzo was arrested.
While inside, police seized suspected pot plants but also stumbled across powerful weapons, ammunition, and explosive devices.
"They observed what they thought to be two pipe bombs. Immediately they backed out of the house," Philadelphia Police Chief Joe Sullivan said.
The bomb unit arrived on-scene and carefully removed the evidence which proved disturbing to police.
"The person who lived in this home, who had custody of all these weapons, also had a some notebooks in which he had some detrimental comments about all types of police officials, including the FBI. This very well may have been a situation that will keep a lot of people from dying as a result of what he may have been planning," Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Evelyn Heath said.
Action News was told that a few years back, Suozzo built a neighborhood skate park on Trenton Avenue inEast Kensington.
He was honored as a "hometown hero" for his work in the community by the Philadelphia 76ers, but based on what police discovered inside his home today, the Kensington man does not deserve praise.
"This is definitely not some making of a hometown hero in our opinion," Suozzo said.
One neighbor, Michael, tells Action News that he hardly ever sees the man who lives in the home, but he thought he was a nice enough guy. He shoveled his snow in the winter time.
When we asked him how he felt knowing there were explosives found in his neighbor's home, Michael responded by saying, "Not very secure. Not with my mortgage paid for. I don't want the place lifted off its foundation."
Police say marijuana was also found inside a woman's house on the 1900 block of Waterloo Street; she was also caring for three young relatives.
Suozzo has been charged with Possession with Intent to Distribute (PWID), Weapons of Mass Destruction, Risking Catastrophe, Knowingly and Intentionally Possessing a Controlled Substance (K&I), Possession of an Instrument of a Crime (PIC), and Possession of an Offensive Weapon.
His bail was set at $3 million.
