DIKE -- This city nestled in Grundy County is a typical rural Iowa community, according to Sheriff Rick Penning, who is responsible for keeping Dike's 944 residents safe.

There are nine churches and about 30 businesses. The town hosts its annual Watermelon Days festival each summer.

About the biggest news lately is increased traffic that came when U.S. Highway 20 expanded to four lanes, Penning said.

Recent numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, however, show Dike was among the top sources of firearms recovered by law enforcement agencies in the state last year.

Lawmen seized and examined 78 guns from Dike in 2006, which ties the community for sixth place for gun seizures among Iowa cities, according to the report released by the ATF's Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information.

In fact, of the top 10 "recovery cities," three locations have less than 1,000 citizens. The second highest number of seized guns -- Des Moines placed No. 1 -- came from the town of Eldon, population 998, where authorities took 689 firearms. No. 3 was West Point, population 980, with 487 guns.

Waterloo placed ninth with 67 recovered and traced guns.

Not all of the weapons traced were used in crimes. Some were uncovered during drug investigations or were in the possession of someone barred from owning firearms. Sometimes the weapons were merely abandoned and then recovered by officers.

"The vast majority of these are taken during law enforcement operations. … Clearly, there is some found property in there," said Jeff Fulton.

Fulton oversees ATF operations in Iowa as part of his job as assistant special agent in charge the bureau's St. Louis office.

The lion's share of Dike's guns -- 72 of them -- was found at a single address outside city limits during an investigation into stolen property. The other small-town statistics also came from single incidents.

Eldon's guns were recovered during an ATF investigation into a resident indicted for selling firearms without a license. The weapons in West Point were seized when a licensed dealer allegedly failed to keep proper paperwork when selling guns at a flea market in Missouri.

Hidden door

A trail of stolen weapons and illegal drugs led police to a door hidden under the Dike resident's house. The person was barred from owning guns because of convictions for making methamphetamine and having enough of the illegal drug to sell in 2003, according to court records.

By January 2006 authorities were headed in his direction again.

It started when a Black Hawk County sheriff's deputy found a stolen handgun when he pulled alongside a broken-down truck and a Waterloo resident on East Dunkerton Road. As the case unfolded, authorities searched homes in Waterloo and rural Cedar Falls, where they found meth.

Then on Jan. 10, 2006, officials had enough information to get a search warrant for the house near Dike.

"It's bad enough if you think somebody has weapons (during a search) because of hiding behind corners, and when it's coupled with drugs, you don't know if the person is in his right mind," Penning said.

Troopers with the Iowa State Patrol tactical team led the raid, and deputies from surrounding counties, who had an interest in the ongoing investigation, assembled for the search. They expected to find guns, but Penning said the arsenal they uncovered was more than anticipated.

While clearing the property, they stumbled across the door to a crawl space underneath a new addition on the home.

"The room was specifically intended to be not known by everyone," Penning said.

Some of the firearms were wrapped in blankets, others stored in cases. The resident had taken care of the weapons and most appeared in near-mint condition.

Among the collection was an AR-15 military-style rifle that had a barrel chopped to nine inches, shorter than the legal length for a rifle. Also recovered were 10 handguns and four SKS military rifles.

The resident later pleaded to federal charges of being a felon in possession of firearms and unlawful possession of a short-barreled rifle. He was sentenced to almost six years in prison.

Five or six of the guns were determined to be stolen and were returned to their rightful owners, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Pete Deegan, who prosecuted the case. The rest were destroyed, he said.

Gun broker

The Eldon man allegedly told ATF investigators he was a gun broker.

If a customer wanted a specific firearm, he would look for the weapon, buy it and sell it at a profit, according to records. He allegedly told detectives he made at least $10 to $15 per transaction.

The problem, federal prosecutors said, is the man didn't have a license to sell guns.

Nothing bars residents from occasionally selling guns from their own collections, as long as they aren't performing the transactions as a business and the purchaser isn't barred from possessing a gun.

"You can derive all the profit you want off your collection, but you can't be in the repetitive business of buying and selling firearms for profit or livelihood," Fulton said.

That requires a license.

According to court records, the Eldon resident sold undercover ATF agents more than 10 firearms in Iowa and at a flea market in Missouri between March 2005 and March 2006. Weapons the officers bought included Chinese SKS rifles, a Romanian SAR-1 military-style rifle and a .45-caliber handgun.

The man "explained that he was careful about selling handguns because he had been called by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after handguns he had sold were subsequently involved in shootings in the state of Missouri," according to court records.

The court documents alleged the man also helped an undercover agent buy a shotgun from a pawn shop in Ottumwa because he believed the agent wasn't legally able to buy firearms.

Authorities served a search warrant at the Eldon man's home March 21, 2006, and he was charged with being an unlicensed firearm dealer and making a false statement to a licensed firearms dealer. Both charges and a forfeiture action regarding the man's guns are pending in federal court.

Paperwork

Like the Eldon man, the West Point dealer had sold guns at the Rutledge Flea Market in Knox County, Missouri. About an hour from the Iowa border, the 60-year-old market offers everything from lawn furniture to chickens.

In 2006, ATF officers began hearing tips about possible illegal gun sales there.

"It all originated from concerns from local citizens and law enforcement from that area about what they believed was individuals dealing without a license in firearms," Fulton said. "We had people who were identified prior to us going up there as unlicensed gun dealers."

They sent in undercover buyers. Seven people were later indicted, mostly for selling guns without a license.

Among those charged, however, was the licensed dealer in West Point who allegedly sold a Benelli shotgun and a .22-caliber Mossberg rifle without recording the name, age and address of the purchaser as required by law.

Authorities seized more than 1,000 weapons during the project. The West Point resident received two years probation and a $2,000 fine, according to court records, which also show authorities seized the entire inventory of his store. Those items are the subject of forfeiture proceedings.

The man, a retired Iowa Department of Transpiration worker who had hoped to pursue his career as a gunsmith and sporting goods dealer, must now find other employment, records state.

In the wake of the flea market operation, ATF officials had town hall meetings to educate residents on gun laws and set up an information booth at the market.

"We are trying to take a multiprong approach to bring people into compliance," Fulton said.

Other numbers

Roughly half of the 3,717 firearms recovered in 2006 -- 1,845 guns -- were connected to weapons sales cases, according to ATF figures. The second largest slice of the pie was weapons possession cases, which involved 1,074 guns.

Drug investigations accounted for 117 weapons, and 26 were homicide case.

Rifles were the most encountered firearm in 2006. There were 1,176 rifles, 1,045 autoloading handguns, 917 shotguns, 473 revolvers, 78 derringers, 20 shotgun-rifle combinations, five machine-guns, one tear gas launcher and two defined as other or unknown.

Contact Jeff Reinitz at (319) 291-1578 or jeff.reinitz@wcfcourier.com.