Eleven police officers, including a deputy chief of the Shenyang public security bureau, have been prosecuted for acting as "protection umbrellas" for three major gangs in Liaoning province, Beijing News reported yesterday.

One case, involving gang leader Song Pengfei, and seven police officers, concluded on Tuesday.

A second case, headed by Hao Wanchun, and involving four police officers, including deputy chief of the Shenyang public security, Zhang Jianming, ended on June 29.

A third case, headed by gang leader Ren Shiwei, and involving 10 police officers will be heard on Monday.

The Yingkou city's intermediate court reserved ruling in Song's case until a later date.

Hao's case was heard from June 20 to 29 at the Liaohe intermediate people's court. No verdict was given.

The ranks of other police officers involved in the cases range from heads of narcotics control squads and armed police squads to special duty units and district public security bureaus.

Liaoning has cracked 14 such cases since 2001.

Action against the latest three gangs began in 2005, after the execution of Liu Yong, a gang leader in the provincial capital Shenyang.

He was convicted of a series of organized crimes such as racketeering, extortion and illegal possession of firearms in 2003 and sentenced to death.

An investigation into the three gangs began on June 7, 2005 after an airport warehouse was looted.

The raid was organized by Song. Two people were killed and four were seriously injured.

Investigations showed the three gangs had more than 200 members and were protected by a number of police officers.

Chen Weidong, a professor of criminal law at Renmin University of China, said cooperation between central and local government departments is an effective way to curb organized crime.

"The gangs are not afraid of committing crimes because they rely on police sources to protect them," Chen told China Daily.

Supreme People's Court statistics show that courts across the country dealt with 337 gang crimes last year, up 161 percent on 2006.

(China Daily July 17, 2008)