Chinese police seize record number of illegal weapons
警方繳獲大量非法武器

Police in China’s southwest city of Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou Province have announced the seizure of a record number of illegal weapons that were produced by a large underground arms manufacturing and trade network based in Guangdong province. So far 15 people have been arrested. The illegal arms network spanned across 27 provinces, cities and autonomous regions.

Over 15,000 illegal air guns, and 120,000 knives were seized in the raid, the largest ever in China.

"They look like real guns and shoot steel pellets. They can fire up to 200 meters, and can cause injury or even death."

Officer Yang Tao with Guiyang Public Security Bureau said.

"These types of weapons are not allowed to be produced or sold, and possessing them is illegal.” Officer Yang Tao with Guiyang Public Security Bureau said.

Police in Guiyang were able to uncover this illegal network after investigating a robbery case in the city last year. One suspect confessed that he bought the illegal air gun from a businessman in Hunan province. Soon police uncovered several warehouses storing illegally made weapons.

"It was a family business which was engaged in the production and retail sale of illegal air guns and knives. The factory was producing both legal and illegal knives." Officer Du Chuang with Guiyang’s Public Security Bureau said.

The underground family business had been running for 3 years, and sold their weapons wholesale from the city of Yangjiang in Guangdong province, a major manufacturing base in the country.

What was shocking was that many factories were also producing toy guns.

"We were surprised that some manufacturers were making toys and guns at the same time, that means we have some legal loopholes.” Sun Licheng, director of guizhou’s provincial public security, said.

Further investigations are ongoing into how extensive the network was, and how many illegal weapons actually made it onto the streets.