Police expand seizures of illegal firearms

Police seized more than 2,700 guns at a secret production facility in Shantou, a coastal city in Guangdong province, acting on information provided by Guizhou police early this month.

The guns were copies of both Chinese and foreign firearms, including rifles and handguns.

In Guizhou province, the police announced on April 14 that they had detained 15 suspects and seized 15,000 guns and 120,000 knives after a four-month investigation into a gang.

The gang's business covered 27 provinces and municipalities, including Guangdong, Guizhou, Hunan and Sichuan, the police said.

Zheng Zehui, director of the security bureau under the Guangdong provincial department of public security, said the police in Guangdong immediately set up a special task force to investigate, following the Guizhou crackdown, the largest such seizure ever in China.

"We are now still busy investigating how many guns seized in Guizhou were produced in or came from Guangdong," Zheng told a press conference on Monday.

According to Li Shihua, deputy director of the criminal investigation bureau of Guangdong's public security department, police across the province have logged 306 gun-related cases, detaining 198 suspects, since the beginning of the year.

"More than 200 guns and a large number of gun parts have been seized so far," Li said.

Meanwhile, Guangdong police revealed a wanted list for 20 escaped suspects who are said to have committed gun crimes, urging locals to tip off any crime to the police.

Guo Shaobo, deputy director-general of Guangdong's public security department, said a special campaign to fight the gun-related crimes was launched in mid-April.

"The campaign, which will carry through to the end of the year, targets a number of gun-carrying gangs and illegal firearm-production locations," Guo said.

Guangdong has been a focal point in the Ministry of Public Security's fight against gun crim for four straight years. It has had the country's highest incidence of gun crime for decades, Guo said.

In addition to the guns produced locally, other weapons seized in Guangdong were found to have been smuggled in from Vietnam via Yunnan province, he said.