Guiyang cops break gang's massive gun, knife arsenal

Guiyang police claimed to have seized the largest number of guns and knives in recent years by busting a large underground gang's arsenal.

Some 15,000 guns and 120,000 knives were taken from a criminal network across 27 provincial regions and cities including Hunan, Guangdong, Sichuan and Guizhou, China Central Television said on Saturday.

Fifteen suspects were involved in manufacturing and trafficking guns and knives, police authorities said.

The criminal group, led by the Chen family, bought and sold guns and knives under the guise of a legitimate knife shop, according to the police investigation.

Those guns and knives were mainly manufactured in legal factories in Yangjiang, Guangdong Province, at the Chens' requests.

Sun Licheng, head of the provincial public security department of Guizhou, said that the case reflected loopholes in gun and knife supervision across the country.

People who possess, manufacture and traffic illegal guns and knives face up to 10 years in prison. If those weapons cause "serious consequences," they face the death penalty under the Criminal Law revised in 1997.

Chinese public security authorities have been destroying illegal guns and explosives nationwide for several years in a bid to reduce related violent crimes.

Gun crime in 2013 was reduced 37.9 percent compared with the figure for 2012, the Ministry of Public Security announced in March 2014.