Police in Shanghai hunted down and seized 728 Chinese citizens for attempting to illegally immigrate and for human trafficking in a three-month crackdown this summer.
A police spokesman said a total of 36 cases involving illegal immigration attempts and human trafficking were uncovered in a campaign targeting illegal immigration from July 15 to September 15.
Twenty-one of these cases were classified as attempts to organize human trafficking and 10 were attempts to obtain entry documents illegally.
The spokesman said 60 "snakeheads," or people who make profit through organizing illegal immigration, were seized, and a total of 313 law violators were dealt with and imposed with a fine of 646,000 yuan (US$ 78,780).
A resident in Shanghai, surnamed Fan, was found to have smuggled 29 people out of China in collaboration with a South Korean "snakehead" during the last three months of 2001.
Fan, who make a profit of nearly 400,000 yuan from the illegal activity, and two other snakeheads, were detained during the campaign.
(Xinhua News Agency November 11, 2001)
