A Turlock Police officer who spotted a vehicle with expired registration tags ended up finding an unregistered and loaded AK style rifle, the police department reported.

Shortly after midnight on March 5, Officer Ryan Mulhim was in the area of S Golden State Boulevard and East Avenue when he spotted a vehicle with expired registration tags.

Mulhim made a traffic stop on the vehicle and made contact with the driver, who was identified as Valintina Guerra, 33, of Modesto and her passengers, one of whom was identified as Mario Torres, 19, of Delhi.

Guerra was found to have an active warrant for her arrest for an unrelated Turlock case, according to the police department. She was taken into custody and as such, Mulhim was making an inventory search of the vehicle.

In the vehicle Mulhim found an open alcoholic beverage and a backpack near Torres. In the backpack was an unregistered loaded short-barreled mini Draco AK style rifle.

Torres, who initially provided a false name to officers, was ultimately arrested for illegally possessing an assault weapon, possessing a short-barreled rifle, carrying a loaded firearm in public, carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle, possessing a large capacity magazine, felon in possession of a firearm, prohibited person possessing ammo, open container, and giving false name to a police officer.

Both Guerro and Torres were booked into Stanislaus County Public Safety Center for their respective charges.