Money, weapons displayed after raid of Pompano Beach pain clinic and owners' home

The 81 items were among the belongings — along with $250,000 in cash, unknown amounts in frozen bank accounts and more in gold coins and nuggets —seized from the home, business and bank safe deposit box of Pompano Beach pain clinic owners Frank and Bernice Turturo, and displayed by the Broward Sheriff's Office on Wednesday.

The couple, who live in Coral Springs, was arrested Tuesday and charged with 14 offenses that include money laundering, racketeering and prescription drug trafficking.

They will remain in jail until it is confirmed that any money or assets used to post bond are not the products of a criminal enterprise.

"My client is a life-long gun collector," said Frank Maister, Frank Turturo's lawyer. "He's never been arrested, he's not a violent guy and he has no violent history."

The couple owns Pompano Beach Pain Clinic, at 1341 S. Powerline Road. Maister said that the business does not dispense medications.

"They hired licensed, certified, qualified doctors and they followed all of the laws and regulations regulating the dispensing of medication in the state of Florida," Maister said. "Patients were examined, X-rayed and MRIs were taken or ordered."

He declined to discuss the gun collection further.

During a news conference at BSO's Fort Lauderdale headquarters, Sheriff Al Lamberti called the firearms array "scary" and "sophisticated" and "not the day-to-day, target practice weapons you'd normally see."

But, officials acknowledged, the bulk of the weapons had been legally purchased.

Lamberti pointed to two assault rifles that may lead to additional federal charges against Frank Turturo, 35, because investigators allege they were illegally modified.

Guns were stored in a bedroom closet and in a garage gun safe, along with several hundred rounds of ammunition, investigators said. The cash was hidden in a wall and under a bed.

Two pistols were taken from the clinic, Lamberti said.

He said Turturo was unarmed when he was arrested.

The olive-green rocket launcher case did not contain its projectile, and was harmless.

Sgt. Ted Taranu of BSO's gun squad said it is not illegal to possess such a souvenir, but that a civilian really shouldn't have one.

"The military controls such equipment that could perhaps be bought at a gun show or from a private collector for around $500," said Taranu. BSO will now try to determine who bought it, and from where.

Lamberti said the clinic's business practices raised investigators' suspicions.

"Traditionally organized crime operates in cash businesses," Lamberti said. "You could not use a Medicare card, Medicaid card, an insurance card, a check or a credit card at that pain clinic. Strictly cash."

The year-long investigation by the state attorney's office, BSO and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration began with a tip.

"He was charged with a state RICO, with racketeering," Lamberti said. "The way they were operating, controlling people, controlling money, it fits the definition of organized crime, from that state statute."