Guangdong police have arrested a total of 654 murder suspects at large in 2005.

A large number of poisoning, rape, robbery, kidnapping, arson and explosion cases have also been cracked in the southern Chinese province over the past 12 months, the local police disclosed yesterday.

The rate of the solved homicide cases is more than 85 percent this year, an increase of about 5 percent on 2004, according to Xiao Shengxian, an official from Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Public Security.

Xiao attributed the increase in the number of cases solved in the province to the great efforts police have made.

"Earlier this year, Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Public Security has encouraged special task forces to be established to focus on investigating the province's murder cases and try to solve all of them," he told China Daily.

Guangdong police also cracked 27,522 criminal cases in a special month-long campaign that ended on December 11.

Officers detained 19,240 suspects during the initiative that was codenamed "Yue Ying, " or "Guangdong Eagle."

The campaign focused on the cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhaoqing, Jiangmen, Shaoguan, Qingyuan and Yunfu, Xiao said.

And a total of 1,862 criminal gangs and secret societies operating in the southern Chinese regions were believed to have been smashed in the campaign.

Police seized 366 guns, 14,265 grams of heroin and 116,956 ecstasy pills.

More than 96,000 illegal vehicles were found in the campaign, while 561,550 beauty salons, bars, KTV bars, disco halls, sauna houses and automobile repair locations were inspected.

Xiao said the initiative had dealt a heavy blow to the criminal gangs that were active in Guangdong.

"It will help ensure a sound and good social order for local residents to spend the coming new year and Spring Festival," Xiao said.

Earlier this month, Jieyang police, in the eastern part of Guangdong, busted a gang that targeted cars, coaches and vans to rob belongings of the drivers and passengers.

They detained 22 members of the gang.

Despite the achievement, Xiao said Guangdong police would continue their efforts to fight crime in the following months.

"Guangdong, which is enjoying rapid economic growth, will never become a haven for criminals from home and abroad," said the official.

He hinted more special campaigns would be launched in the near future.

(China Daily December 29, 2005)