Guangdong police seize guns in 9-city crackdown

Guangdong police seized 12,115 assorted guns in a special operation launched on July 10, a senior police officer said.

Guo Shaobo, deputy director-general of the Guangdong provincial department of public security, said police also detained 142 suspects during the operation, which began at 4 am and lasted 31 hours.

The weapons seized include rifles, semi-automatics and handguns.

"The operation, which was targeted to crack down on guns and related crimes, took place in the nine cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, Dongguan, Zhanjiang, Yangjiang, Qingyuan and Yunfu at the same time," Guo told a press conference on Wednesday.

Police also seized 27,151 bullets and more than 50,000 plastic bullets, plus a large number of gun parts, during the operation code named Lanjian, or blue arrow, Guo said.

Police also busted 16 secret gun production and sales locations in the province and swooped on nine criminal gangs that produced and sold guns, or used guns to commit crimes, he said.

The operation dealt "a heavy blow" to gun crimes, which used to be prevalent in the prosperous southern province that borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, Guo said.

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

Guangdong has been a focal point in the Ministry of Public Security's fight against gun crimes for the past four years. The province has had the country's highest incidence of gun crimes for decades.

According to Guo, Guangdong police cracked an average of 1,200 gun-related cases annually over the past three years.

Police in Yunfu detained 41 suspected gun gang members during the operation and seized 31 guns during the operation.

Six gun production sites were also destroyed and 5,637 bullets and many gun parts seized in Yunfu.

In Shantou in the eastern part of Guangdong, police seized more than 18,000 homemade guns and 50,000 bullets when they swooped on an underground production location.

A total of nine suspects were detained in Shantou.