Police seize weapons, ammunition in simultaneous raids

Police seized 222 assorted guns, 42,729 gun parts and 82,257 bullets in a special operation that was simultaneously launched in 29 Chinese provinces, municipalities and regions from Sept 11 through 16.

During the campaign, codenamed Lanjian-2, or Blue Arrow-2, 313 suspects were also detained.

Lin Weixiong, director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau under the Guangdong Provincial Department of Public Security, said the province, which borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, was the main theater of the operation.

"Police in Guangdong alone detained 105 suspects and seized 113 guns, 77,840 bullets and 42,162 gun parts during the special operation, which was directed by the Ministry of Public Security," Lin told a press conference in the Guangdong provincial capital on Tuesday.

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

"Police have also busted many 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.

Lanjian-2 has dealt "a heavy blow" to gun crimes, which used to be active in the prosperous southern province, but police will never relax their vigilance in fighting gun-related crimes, Lin said.

He hinted that another special operation, code named Lanjian-3, would be launched to focus on fighting gun crimes and related crimes in Guangdong next month.

The growing number of weapons related crimes once posed a serious threat to local people's lives and property, Lin said.

Lin attributed the growing number of gun related cases reported in Guangdong to the low cost but high profit in producing and trading weapons.

"Meanwhile, suspects can now easily learn how to produce guns online," he added.

He urged local residents to report weapons related crimes to police to help maintain good social order in Guangdong.

Locals will be rewarded by up to 50,000 yuan ($8,162) for successful tips in cases involving weapons, according to a statement from the Guangdong Provincial Department of Public Security.

The largest rewards will go to those who provide information that leads police to illegal weapon production locations, or that results in the seizure of at least 10 guns, the statement said.

By Sept 25, police across Guangdong province had cracked 2,241 gun cases, an increase of 221 percent from the same period the previous year.

In addition, 775 suspects in gun crimes were detained, a year-on-year increase of 184 percent.