A Pattaya court today sentenced a Chinese man to nearly 46 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to possessing a large cache of military-grade weapons, ammunition, explosives and communications equipment without permission.
The court delivered the verdict against Ming Chen Sun and another defendant, who were both arrested on May 8 in Chonburi province.
The items confiscated from Sun's residence included assault rifles, ammunition, magazines, C4 high explosives, bomb-making components, bulletproof vests, radio signal jammers and radio communication devices.
In its ruling, the court found that Sun had committed multiple offences under the Firearms Act, the Armaments Control Act and the Radio Communications Act.
Although the court reduced his sentence by one-third because of his guilty plea, it said the offences were particularly serious because they endangered public safety and national security.
The court also ordered the forfeiture of all the seized items, including a 9mm Glock pistol, M4 and M16 assault rifles, bulletproof vests, a chemical protection mask, and other military hardware.
The weapons were discovered after Sun and a Thai woman were involved in a car accident in Pattaya. When he was unable to provide police with a clear account of the incident, investigators expanded their inquiry, leading to the discovery of the cache of weapons at his residence.
The case attracted widespread public attention because of the discovery of such a large cache of weapons in Pattaya and reports that Sun was linked to a scam network based in Cambodia.
