Chinese police will launch a sweeping crackdown on criminal gangs that have received help from corrupt officials to steal oil and gas from drilling rigs and the country's pipelines.

"Police departments must conduct thorough criminal investigations into the mafia-style oil thefts without interference from local government officials," said Liu Jinguo, vice-minister of Public Security, on Wednesday.

The campaign will target Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei and Shandong, through which the West-to-East Gas pipelines run.

The eight-month campaign is being launched following raids last year that busted 650 gangs, resulting in 7,522 people being charged with stealing oil. The government also closed 2,182 underground plants that processed the stolen oil.

In last year's raids police found that 6,496 vehicles were used to transport the stolen oil and gas and more than 30,000 tons of oil products were confiscated. Authorities also recovered assets worth 600 million yuan, Liu said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2007)