NANJING: A retired police officer from Hong Kong has been sentenced to seven years in jail in east China's Jiangsu Province after being found guilty of smuggling ammunition, a court statement said Tuesday.

Ho was detained by police on August 19, 2007, at the Luohu Port in Shenzhen in south China, when he was bringing seven sporting gun bullets into the mainland, the court heard.

He was sentenced to seven years in jail in December 2008 at the Huai'an Municipal Intermediate People's Court, and was fined 3,000 yuan (US$441).

Ho lodged an appeal, but the sentence was upheld by the Jiangsu Provincial Higher People's Court late last year, the court statement said.

Ho had been a police officer in Hong Kong until 2006.

Wang's case is under further investigation, the statement said.