New Hyde Park home had 4 assault rifles, ammunition, cops say
Nassau County police remove a box from a residence where they were investigating a "suspicious item" found inside a home on North Sixth Street in New Hyde Park on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. Credit: News 12 Long Island
Nassau County police recovered four assault rifles, ammunition and black powder on Tuesday from a New Hyde Park house where at least one of the residents previously had been suspected of plans to smuggle guns out of the country six months ago.
Chandrakant Dhanak, 37, who lives at the house on North Sixth Street, has a case pending from an April arrest when he was charged with nine counts of criminal possession of a firearm, officials said.
The police arson and bomb squad on Tuesday were back inside the house after Dhanak’s landlord, who does not reside at the home, found “suspicious items,” police said Wednesday.
Dhanak told his landlord that he was out of the country and would not be returning to the United States, police said.
The landlord then went to the home to clean up, observed suspicious items and called police, investigators said.
The April arrest came after Nassau police received an anonymous tip about a possible stash of weapons in the home.
Dhanak was out on $5,000 bail from his April 9 arrest. He did not make his last court date but an arrest warrant was stayed, court officials said.
Dhanak was scheduled to appear before Judge Anthony W. Paradiso in First District Court in Hempstead on Sept. 23. His next scheduled court appearance is Oct. 11.
Richard Peter Ford, a Garden City lawyer who last represented Dhanak, could not be reached for comment.
The investigation is ongoing, police said.
Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.
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