More details have emerged about a Sino-US firearms smuggling ring busted last month as mainland police destroyed more than 100,000 illegal guns and 250 tonnes of explosives in 150 cities yesterday as part of an ongoing crackdown.
Chinese and US police broke up a criminal ring and arrested 26 suspects including a US National Guard staff sergeant who allegedly smuggled firearms into the mainland even though it has some of the world's toughest gun laws, Xinhua reported late on Monday.
The Ministry of Public Security said 23 Chinese suspects had been arrested in 16 cities and provinces since August, with 16 guns, a large quantity of gun parts and more than 50,000 bullets seized.
Meanwhile, Joseph Debose, a 29-year-old staff sergeant with US National Guard Special Forces, and two Chinese suspects aged between 23 and 25 were arrested by US federal law enforcement officers.
Debose was found carrying a .45 calibre pistol and 12 other firearms that he intended to export illegally when he was arrested in North Carolina last month.
The illegal trade went unnoticed by the authorities until a random inspection at Shanghai airport in August uncovered nine pistols and 16 gun parts and accessories in a UPS courier parcel sent from New York to Taizhou , Zhejiang province, Xinhua and the Oriental Morning Post reported.
The addressee, a 32-year-old Chinese man who was arrested the next day, confessed he was a middleman who smuggled weapons with the Chinese ringleader in New York and then sold them to mainland buyers.
