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ATTLEBORO - An alleged member of an Attleboro gang arrested last week and charged with possessing a sawed-off shotgun was ordered held in jail without bail after a dangerousness hearing Monday.

Vanarath Heng, 19, an alleged member of the A-Town Crips, was deemed a danger to the public by Judge Richard Savignano, who cited testimony by two state troopers at the hearing in Attleboro District Court.

Heng, who lives with his family on the first floor of 25 East St., was arrested Thursday after state and local police executed a search warrant at the residence and seized a 12-gauge pump action sawed-off shotgun and shotgun shells.

Trooper Paul Baker testified he obtained the search warrant when conducting an investigation after two informants told him Heng, also known as Ricky Heng, kept the weapon in his basement.

The weapon was found under stairs in the basement by Trooper Edward Reese, who also testified that he overheard Heng's 9-year-old nephew tell another trooper that he saw Heng with the weapon just days before the raid. The serial numbers on the gun were ground down and some of the 13 shotgun shells were wrapped in a blue bandana, the colors of the A-Town Crips, Reese testified.

Illegal weapon

The weapon is illegal in Massachusetts, authorities said.

Baker testified that the gun would be hard to trace to a crime because the serial numbers were ground down.

Heng, who has no criminal record, has pleaded innocent to possession of a sawed-off shotgun, possession of a firearm with defaced serial numbers and unlawful possession of ammunition.

Baker wrote in a search warrant affidavit made public Monday that Heng allegedly purchased the weapon from another person who is not named.

The troopers testified they learned Attleboro police had investigated a firearms complaint last August at Heng's address and an alleged A-Town Crips gang meeting in the basement in January.

Assistant District Attorney Jessica Lennon argued that Heng should be held as a dangerous person because the weapon is illegal and because of Heng's alleged affiliation with the A-Town Crips.

"The A-Town Crips are known to the Attleboro Police Department as a semi-well organized gang with a hierarchy and structure similar to other organized gangs throughout the area," Baker wrote in his affidavit.

But Heng's family members dispute he is a gang member. They said he has friends over to the house like anyone else, and wearing the same color clothing does not mean someone is in a gang. His sister, Phal Sek, testified in his defense and contradicted testimony that her 9-year-old son told state police he saw her brother with the gun. She said her son heard her brother held the weapon.

"He didn't say he saw Ricky hold a gun," Sek testified.

Heng's lawyer, Daniel Rich of Norton, suggested while cross examining the troopers that the boy and Sek may have had difficulty understanding English.

Afterwards, Sek defended her brother: "He didn't do anything wrong. I feel sorry for him."

Rich argued that the shotgun was found in an area that was open to residents of all three apartments in the building or anyone else because an outside door is broken.

Rich told the judge that prosecutors will have trouble linking Heng to the gun without revealing the identities of their informants at trial.

Baker declined during Rich's cross-examination to identify his informants or say whether they were promised or received beneficial treatment from prosecutors in return for the information.

"The commonwealth is going to have a hard time prosecuting its case against the defendant based on what I heard today," Rich told the judge.

Rich argued that Heng was not a danger to the public and argued that the statute allows for a defendant's release on bail with conditions and monitoring by a Global Positioning System.

He described his client as an Attleboro native who went to Attleboro High School. He now works for a temporary employment agency.

A probable cause hearing was scheduled for March 27.

DAVID LINTON can be reached at 508-236-0338 or at dlinton@thesunchronicle.com.