Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court sentenced a Zhejiang Province man to death with a reprieve Thursday for smuggling of firearms and ammunition from the US into China.
The primary defendant, Wang Ting, 33, was one of 17 people sentenced Thursday for smuggling or illegally possessing firearms. The other defendants received prison sentences ranging from 15 years to 19 months.
By giving Wang a death sentence with a reprieve, the court will postpone his execution for two years while authorities investigate whether he committed further crimes. If they do not find anything, his sentence will be reduced to life imprisonment. He also had all of his personal property seized.
Police arrested Wang in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, on August 26, 2011, when he tried to pick up a package from the US that contained handgun and rifle parts.
The day before, customs agents at Shanghai Pudong International Airport discovered the gun parts hidden inside the package, which listed audio equipment on its customs declaration, according to a report in the Shanghai Evening Post. Police followed the parcel to its intended address in Zhejiang, where they arrested Wang.
A subsequent investigation found that Wang had received 48 guns and 4,500 bullets over the preceding 13 months from Lin Zhifu, a 26-year-old man from Fuzhou, Fujian Province, who was living in the US.
Lin had gone to the US on a student visa in 2009. He later developed a business selling firearms and ammunition to Chinese residents whom he met online, including Wang.
Wang sold 23 of the guns and 2,100 bullets to other defendants, who lived in different provinces. The court did not reveal how much Wang earned from the sales, though it did disclose that he transferred 1.28 million yuan ($208,731) in total to the bank account of Lin's relative, Lin Mei.
In court, Lin Mei's lawyer argued that his client should not have been charged with firearm smuggling because she had nothing to do with the guns. All she did was provide a bank account for the money and handle some financial matters for her relative.
However, the court also heard evidence that showed she knew about the gun smuggling and played a major role in handling the business's finances. The court sentenced her to eight years in prison.
Lin Zhifu has been charged in the US for his role in the case.
Authorities also charged Joseph Debose, a former staff sergeant in the US Special Forces National Guard in North Carolina, Reuters reported. Court records show Debose supplied several shipments of firearms to Lin and other suspects involved in the case.
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