More than 20 people, most of them military enthusiasts, have been arrested by police in east China's Jiangsu Province for trading in guns online.
Police also seized about 140 guns, hundreds of parts and more than 40,000 bullets, according to a China News Service report.
Following a tip-off last September, police in Xuzhou found three gun barrels in a parcel from Taiwan delivered to a university employee identified only as Xiaohua.
A search of his house revealed gun manufacturing tools, 225 gun barrels, more than 4,000 bullets and piles of rifle components in his basement, police said.
Over the following two weeks, a large number of parcels containing gun barrels and bullets arrived at the house.
The suspect is said to have told police that he joined an online group for people with an interest in the military and got to know a seller in Taiwan surnamed Xie. He later became a sales agent for the Chinese mainland.
It is alleged he even bought steel tubing to turn into gun barrels so he could develop his own brand.
Police said the others, including Xie, were apprehended following information given by Xiaohua.
