A Chinese man has been sentenced to 46 years in prison for the illegal possession of military-grade weapons, C4 explosive, signal-jamming equipment and other prohibited military hardware.
Sun Mingchen, 31, and another defendant were charged with illegal possession of military firearms, ammunition, explosives and other military equipment including radio communication devices.
The charges stemmed from a police operation on May 8, during which a large arsenal of weapons and military equipment was found and seized from Sun.
During the trial, Sun pleaded guilty to all charges. The second defendant denied the allegations.
The court ordered prosecutors to refile the second case within 15 days. It also ordered that the defendant remain in custody pending further legal proceedings.
The court then reduced Sun's sentence by one third before imposing consecutive prison terms totalling 44 years and 24 months, equivalent to 46 years. Legally, he can serve a maximum of 20 years of that sentence.
The court also ordered the confiscation of all seized items, including a 9mm Glock pistol, M4 and M16 assault rifles, ammunition, various anti-personnel explosives, C4 explosive, body armour, chemical protection masks, radio signal jammers and other military hardware recovered during the investigation.
The investigation began on the evening of May 8 , when police responded to reports of a car accident in Chon Buri's Bang Lamung district. Sun was the driver and a Taiwanese woman was travelling with him. Neither was seriously injured.
However, officers' suspicions were aroused by the discovery of a handgun in the crashed car.
A search of Sun's home uncovered the weapons.
