Toccoa Man Facing Federal Weapons and Explosives Charges

A Toccoa man faces a local charge and possibly federal weapons and explosives charges after an investigation last week.

Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley says that 67-year-old Paul Coy Hulse of Toccoa was arrested last week on a local charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

An investigation began, according to the sheriff when officials at the Toccoa-Stephens County Airport contacted authorities about an individual who was hanging around the new airport terminal on a regular basis.

Deputies later determined that the individual was Hulse.  Hulse is a registered sex offender convicted of child pornography in Florida and a sexual assault in North Carolina.  Two years ago, he moved to Toccoa from Philadelphia.

Deputies and investigators visited Hulse at his apartment on Nottingham Trail and did not like what they found.

“During the course of their visit, they discovered that he had some large amounts of ammunition and some weapons scattered in the living room area, as well as some other items that looked very suspicious,” said Shirley.

Deputies then took Hulse into custody, obtained a search warrant for his home, and confiscated a cache of weapons.

“Some of the items we seized were a fully automatic German 43 machine gun, an AK-47, an AR-15, some Uzi’s,’ said Shirley, who added 24 assault rifles were found in all. “We also found some live grenades.  After finding what we believed to be some chemical explosives and some detonating devices, and some other incendiary devices, we contacted the GBI Bomb Squad.”

The ATF was also called and they sent 10 agents.  But it didn’t end there.

Shirley said Hulse had also rented a storage unit in Eastanolle where investigators found even more firearms, ammunition, explosive devices, as well as dangerous chemicals.

State and federal agents were able to remove everything safely from both locations and took all of the items into custody for further analysis and  the investigation is ongoing.

So far, Hulse has not given any motive or reason for the large stockpile of weapons and explosives.

The sheriff said during a search of Hulse at the Stephens County Jail, authorities found two “thumb drives” on him, which they also turned over to federal agents.

Federal agents are also looking into an offshore account Hulse allegedly has access to containing thousands of dollars.  Shirley says federal warrants are forthcoming against Hulse.