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)