Raiway police in Shanghai arrested 318 ticket scalpers who allegedly belong to 48 gangs during a crackdown during the peak Spring Festival travel period.

Police said they seized 2,664 tickets, some real and some fake, worth 373,800 yuan (US$46,148).

On January 3, police caught a scalper surnamed Ning at People's Square as he was selling train tickets for more than their face value.

An investigation found Ning and his accomplice surnamed Yang advertised train tickets online.

"Most of the scalpers sold their tickets in hair saloons, grocery stores or tailor's shops to avoid detection," said railway police officer Zhang Guangqi.

On February 5, police watched as a man bought a ticket from a traveler at a very low price.

Police though the man was very suspicious and followed him to the Xue'er Hair Saloon in Baoshan District, where they discovered more than 40 long-distance railway tickets.

Many of the tickets were counterfeit.

"They exchanged fake seat tickets for real stand-only tickets from travelers," said Zhang. "Then the scalpers returned the real tickets to the train station for a refund."

During a raid of one gang's hideout in Zhabei District, police seized 188 counterfeit tickets, and 52 real tickets.

Among the real tickets, 15 were for trains headed to Anhui, Sichuan and Heilongjiang provinces, which are always busy routes during the Spring Festival.

During the crackdown, four theft rings and 38 suspected thieves were also caught.

Police said they seized tens of thousands of yuan worth of money and property during the arrests.

The theft rings mainly operated around the Shanghai Railway Station and Kunshan Station in Jiangshu Province, according to police.

(Shanghai Daily February 13, 2006)