ROCHESTER — Federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, U.S. Customs and State Police found weapons and drugs inside a Fulton County home. Police raided the house just off U.S. 31 on Dogwood Drive around 6 p.m. Thursday.

Investigators said they had been watching the house and the man who lives there for nine months.

When they finally served the search warrant, investigators found more than 20 guns inside 48-year-old David Basile's home. Some of them were fully automatic. Investigators also said Basile had nearly $30,000 in marijuana and the equipment used to grow it.

It happened in a nice, quiet neighborhood just outside Rochester.

“I had no idea any of this was happening,” said Lynn Groenleer, who lives nearby.

Helen Durkes lives next door to Basile.

“I just came home to a street filled with police officers,” she said.

Police wouldn’t say how or why the investigation began, but it ended with equipment — including special lights, filters and marijuana seeds — in police custody. Investigators said they also found 13 marijuana plants in Basile's basement and 20 to 30 guns in the house.

“Anytime you combine illegal drug activity with weapons, it's never good,” Indiana State Police Sgt. Tony Slocum said. “It's a menace to every community.”

Slocum said the only illegal weapons taken from the home were some switchblade knives. He said they also found a weapon used to launch tear gas and pepper spray, but that and the other guns inside were not illegal.

“They were just confiscated as part of the drug investigation,” Slocum said. “It appears at this time they were possessed legally. He does appear to have the proper federal stamps and things of that nature, even though he did possess assault rifles.”

Basile bonded out of jail early Friday morning, but refused to talk to a crew from WSBT outside his home.

When asked if he did anything wrong with the guns, Basile replied "No ma’am, I don’t want to talk."

Now his neighbors are wondering how something like that could happen so close to home.

“You think you know your neighbors,” said Durke. “We had no clue.”

Police preliminarily charged Basile with three felonies — cultivating marijuana, possessing more than 30 grams of marijuana and maintaining a common nuisance.

He's also facing two misdemeanors for possession of switchblade knives and possession of drug paraphernalia.