SWAT guns retrieved during morning raid

A machine gun and rifle stolen three months ago from a Montgomery County police officer's unmarked car were recovered yesterday during an early morning police drug raid in Laurel, police reported.

Laurel police raided a residence on Fourth Street at about 1:30 a.m., executing a narcotics search warrant.

The officers then found a police-issue 9mm machine gun and a Remington .308-caliber rifle and scope that had been stolen earlier from the officer's car in Gaithersburg, according to police reports.

The officer's unmarked police cruiser was one of 33 vehicles broken into July 11 in three Gaithersburg neighborhoods.

The weapons belonged to the county police department's special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team, police reported.

Arrested on theft charges was Stephen Joseph Walker, 34, of Laurel, Montgomery County police reported.