SHIJIAZHUANG -- A man in north China's Hebei Province was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of smuggling weapons from Hong Kong, local customs said on Tuesday.

The Intermediate People's Court of Qinhuangdao City handed down the verdict to the suspect, surnamed Wang, who confessed to purchasing imitation guns online via two agents in Hong Kong starting in September 2013.

A police raid of Wang's home in Qinhuangdao found 29 imitation guns and more than 3,000 bullets. Wang said he sold the imitation guns to buyers in other regions on the Chinese mainland, including the cities of Tianjin, Wuhan and Nanjing.

The Qinhuangdao customs police later caught seven people who bought from Wang and other sellers, confiscating 31 imitation guns. The weapons seized were determined to be lethal, making the deals punishable by law.

The two agents were sentenced to seven years in prison and three years in prison with a four-year reprieve respectively.

The Qinhuangdao customs police started investigating Wang last April after being informed by Tianjin customs that it found six suspicious parcels sent from Hong Kong to Qinhuangdao during a regular check.

Eighteen components in the parcels could be assembled into three guns. The materials were declared as "mechanical samples," according to the Tianjin customs.