Eric Wilson
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY — Two residents of Santa Maria in Northern Santa Barbara County were arrested on May 4th pursuant to a protracted investigation into their marketing and sales activities involving firearms.
According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, it was just before dawn when SBSD Special Investigations Bureau Deputies and agents of the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives moved in on individual residences occupied by William Mobley, 33, and Eric Wilson, 39.
Police display confiscated weapons
Both men had been the subjects of an undercover operation wherein deputies posed as buyers interested in illegal firearms, and Mobley and Wilson had negotiated with an ATF Special Agent “for the sale of an AR-15 rifle.”
Mobley was contacted at his residence and taken into custody and charged as “a felon in possession of firearm and ammunition, possession of a high capacity magazine, illegal sale of a firearm and criminal conspiracy.”
While he was being arrested, SBSD detectives served a search warrant on Wilson’s home, pursuant to which “detectives discovered Wilson was illegally in possession of a high capacity magazine and metal knuckles,” as well as for participating in the attempted sale of the AR-15 to the undercover ATF agent.
Both men were transported to Santa Barbara County Jail; Wilson’s bail was set at $25,000, while Mobley was “released with a citation due to a medical condition.”
