Police in Guangdong dealt a heavy blow to cross-border and
organized crime by cracking several big cases in recent months, a
senior police officer said yesterday.
Last month, police busted a gunrunning gang in the city's Haizhu
District, said Hou Tongfen, deputy director of the Guangdong
provincial bureau of public security's criminal investigation
department.
Sixteen suspects, including the gang's leader, Deng Weihua, were
detained.
Police seized 27 guns and 558 bullets, plus many other
half-completed weapons and equipment during a raid on the
underground gun factory on May 21.
"It is the largest weapon production and trafficking case that
has been cracked in this southern Chinese province, which borders
the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions," Hou told a
press conference in Guangzhou yesterday.
Deng and his gang had been operating since the end of last year.
Police said they could make a gun for less than 1,000 yuan and then
turn around and sell it for more than 10,000 yuan.
They are still investigating the gang's activities, Hou
said.
In a joint campaign from May 1 to June 24, police in Guangdong
Province worked with their counterparts in Hong Kong and Macao to
fight secret societies and cross-border and organized crime, Hou
said.
The 50-day operation, codenamed Leiting 07, led to the
resolution of 10,942 criminal cases. More than 1,400 gangs were
smashed, and 24,860 suspects, including 132 residents of Hong Kong,
Macao and Taiwan and six foreigners, were detained.
Altogether, 159 guns, 580 bullets and large amounts of drugs
were also seized.
"The joint operation, which took place in eight Guangdong cities
in the Pearl River Delta as well as Hong Kong and Macao, has
brought peace and stability prior to the celebration of the 10th
anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland on July 1," Hou
said.
(China Daily?June 26, 2007)