Coachella Valley Felon Charged With Firearm Possession

COACHELLA VALLEY, CA — Felony charges were filed Friday against a 19-year-old felon and documented gang member for alleged firearm and drug possession in Bermuda Dunes.

Eddie Amezquita was charged with three felony counts, one each of possession of controlled substances while armed, being a convicted felon and narcotic addict possessing a firearm and possessing ammunition, according to court records. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday afternoon at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.

Members of the Coachella Valley Violent Crime Gang Task Force served a search warrant around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at a residence in the 4000 block of Washington Street, according to Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Paul Heredia.

During the search, officers allegedly found a loaded AK-47-style .22- caliber rifle and Alprazolam pills, a drug is used in the anti-anxiety medication Xanax, Heredia said. Amezquita was arrested and booked into the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio, where he was being held on $50,000 bail.

Amezquita was serving a sentence of nearly two years of formal probation stemming from a June 23 guilty plea to illegally carrying a loaded firearm, authorities said.