Cops: Woodmere home filled with weapons, pot

A huge cache of weapons, bombs and explosive materials discovered by Nassau police inside a Woodmere home could have destroyed "the entire block," a top Nassau police official said Wednesday.

Police said they found 100 handguns, more than 20 rifles, 15 pipe bombs, 15 incendiary devices and 50 pounds of explosive materials, including fuel oil, peroxide, hexamine and sodium nitrate.

Authorities also seized about 250 marijuana plants, weighing more than 50 pounds.

Investigators said they are trying to learn more about the suspect, Marc Ringel, 53, who grew up in the area and graduated from nearby Lawrence High School.

Ringel faces arraignment Thursday and will be charged with illegal possession of weapons, explosives and drugs, police said. Authorities said Ringel has no known ties to terrorism, but they were unsure of his motives. Police are being assisted in the investigation by the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The guns and explosives were found inside a two-story wood-frame home on Narrow Lane -- a dead-end street in a quiet neighborhood.

"If any of that was to go off, there was enough to level his house and possibly the entire block," said Steven Skrynecki, Nassau's chief of department. A wire ran from the house to a backyard pit that police said appeared to have been used to test explosives.

Pictures taken by police inside the house showed an automatic pistol, three revolvers, a derringer, two military-style "pineapple" grenades and what appeared to be two bulb-shaped fragmentation grenades.

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano called Ringel "a potential madman" Wednesday at a police news conference. While being led in handcuffs to police headquarters in Mineola Wednesday night, Ringel told reporters: "My only concern is for my family. They are wonderful and loving people." He declined further comment, citing the advice of his attorney.

The discovery Tuesday afternoon stunned the neighborhood and prompted the temporary evacuation of about 20 homes within a 500-foot radius of the house, located just north of the Long Island Road Road tracks. There was no immediate evidence of a plan to use any of the weapons and explosives, authorities said.

Nassau police and federal agents were expected to return to the home Thursday to resume their search. Throughout Wednesday, authorities could be seen hauling out rifles and other items. Rory O'Connor, assistant special agent in charge of the ATF's New York field office, said the amount of explosives seized is "significant." He declined to comment further.

FBI spokesman Jim Margolin said the bureau doesn't believe terrorism was a motive and is treating the case as a nonfederal crime.

Skrynecki said Ringel grew up in Woodmere and left New York in the 1980s, returning to Long Island in 2009. He had been married and divorced, said Skrynecki, but details were not available. It was not known if he has any children.

Skrynecki said Ringel's elderly parents had been in Florida for three months and he had been living in their house this winter. The chief said Ringel was known to stay there with or without his parents' permission.

Authorities will try to determine whether the parents, identified in property records as Abraham and Ruth Ringel, had any knowledge of the weapons cache. Calls to the parents in Florida were not returned. Officials said they were flying home Wednesday.

"It's shocking," said Steven Wagner, a 22-year resident across the street. He described the Ringels as "the nicest people in the world. Very accommodating, very neighborly. I don't think they knew what was going on."

Police stumbled on to the cache after responding to a silent burglar alarm. Officers Robert Ryan and John Lutz went to the home at 1:36 p.m. Tuesday and saw Ringel working on a van in the driveway, police said. Police said Ringel, who activated the alarm, didn't have proper identification but told officers it was his parents' house and he had a key.

After Ringel opened the front door at the officers' request, they smelled marijuana and saw a handgun on the floor, police said. Ringel tried to push the officers out but they restrained him and called for backup.

Online records show Ringel has a 2002 disorderly conduct conviction in Verde Valley, Ariz. He was also found guilty in 2005 in Provo, Utah, for violating an order of protection, according to the Utah Department of Corrections.

With Matthew Chayes, William Murphy, John Valenti, Chau Lam and Howard Schnapp