Saugus man busted with arsenal of illegal guns

Police have busted a 49-year-old Saugus man who has mental health problems for having an arsenal of illegal arms in his home.

Authorities found 31 guns in Eric Dalbo’s Felton Street home office, bedroom and an upper floor storage room.

Police discovered the trove of guns while serving a Section 12 psychiatric order to Dalbo last Thursday. Section 12 allows physicians who have a reason to think that failure to hospitalize a mentally ill patient would create serious harm can authorize the restraint or hospitalization of such an individual for three days.

As of Sunday, Dalbo was still hospitalized and guarded by police because of his mental state. He could be arraigned in Lynn District Court as early as Monday. This is not Dalbo’s first run-in with the law. According to police, he has multiple convictions, including a 1996 conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm and drug offenses that date back to 1988.

Dalbo did not answer the door when police arrved to serve the Section 12 order and bring him to a hospital. Authorities did note his car was parked near the home.

Police entered the home through an unlocked rear door, becase of the “emergency nature of the Section 12 order and the fear that Dalbo could harm himself or another person.”

Dalbo, encountering the officers near a stairway, asked if he could change his clothes before he left the house and invited police upstairs. There, police saw a “large quantity of unsecured firearms on his bed, next to the bed and hanging on several walls of the room.” Police also found a trio of law enforcement badges in the home.

Police then removed Dalbo from the home and left to secure a search warrant. He now faces a litany of gun charges, including 31 counts of unlawful possession of a gun as a subsequent offense, on count of possession of a deceptive weapon device, once count of unlawful possession of ammunition, one count of possession of large capacity feeding device and one count of possession of a sawed-off shotgun .

“This was a very dangerous situation for police officers, for the suspect, and for the public,” Chief Police Chief Domenic J. DiMella said through a statement. “Thankfully, no one was injured, and I want to recognize our Saugus Police Officers for their professionalism and carefulness in the resolution of this case.”