On Tuesday, a Chinese national was arrested in California after being charged with shipping weapons and ammunition to North Korea.

As Breitbart reports, 41-year-old Shenghua Wen, an illegal alien from China, was charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The charges were announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, which includes the city of Long Beach, where Wen was arrested.

Wen had overstayed his student visa in the United States, and as a result, was  “therefore prohibited from possessing any firearms or ammunition.” The charge of violating the IEEPA is a “felony that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison,”

Wen had been sending his shipments of “firearms, ammunition, and other military items” back to North Korea out of Long Beach by keeping them “concealed inside shipping containers.” The shipping containers were then sent to Hong Kong, and from Hong Kong to North Korea.

“It is essential that we protect our country from hostile foreign states that have adverse interests to our nation,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada in a statement. “We have arrested a defendant who allegedly acted at the direction of the North Korean government by conspiring to illegally ship firearms, ammunition, and other military equipment to North Korea.”

Wen’s residence had been seized by law enforcement back on August 14th, where they discovered “two devices that he intended to send to North Korea for military use.” One item was a “chemical threat identification device,” while the other was a “hand-held broadband receiver that detects eavesdropping devices.”

On September 6th, law enforcement further discovered “approximately 50,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition that Wen allegedly obtained to send to North Korea.”

Once he was apprehended, Wen allegedly “told investigators that North Korean government officials wired him approximately $2 million to purchase firearms and other products.” He also “purchased an armory and a federal firearm license for $150,000,” and enlisted other people to “make the purchases” that he legally could not make.