YANGON — Police seized 22 guns from a car near Kywe Tet Sone toll gate in Thazi District, Mandalay Region, at around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday night.
The Toyota Crown car was heading to Mandalay from the Karenni State capital Loikaw when Nay Soe Htwe Min, also known as Ko Sai, 44, who was at the wheel, and his wife Mya Hsu Hnin, 46, were stopped.
Police seized 20 Thai-made automatic firearms, 20 magazines, and two German-made AK-47 assault rifles without magazines, as well as more than 800,000 kyats, and three mobile phones from the car.
The pair have been arrested and charged under the Arms Act of Myanmar, said a Thazi police officer. Violators of the law found illegally carrying and holding arms can face up to three years in jail and a fine.
The bust was unexpected, according to the officer, as police were searching vehicles for signs of drug trafficking.
“We learned that the couple were the middlemen who were going to sell the firearms to someone else. We are investigating to find the accomplices. So far we still don’t know how many accomplices there will be,” said the officer.
Maw Ra, 45, also known as Zhong Yangsan, from Kale Township, Sagaing Region, was arrested at a hotel in Mandalay on Thursday in connection with the crime and is being questioned at the No. 5 police station in Mandalay’s Aungmyaythazan Township, according to local media.
In June 2015, police seized more than 40 unlicensed firearms including rifles, pistols and revolvers, as well as mobile phones and drugs, from two brothers in Chanayethazan Township in Mandalay.
