Beijing has stepped up its crackdown against mafia-like organizations, taking part in a nationwide crackdown that has put the gangs in the cross-hairs, the police said on Monday.

The latest drive in the capital follows on from a campaign launched in June 2004 in which Beijing introduced several initiatives aimed at hooligan gangs and lawlessness.

In the past six years, 4,700 criminal cases have been brought, involving 1,200 gangs.

Police said the drive effectively countered the arrogance of the organizations and stopped them from developing momentum.

An example of the success of the crackdown was the breaking up of a gang led by Li Shiwang, who monopolized the "day trip" market in the Qianmen area. Another gang, led by Wang Aiguo, which operated an extortion racket, was also broken up. And a high-profile operation led by Hu Jianli, which monopolized the availability of hospital registration tickets for illegal profits, was also put out of business.

Fu Zhenhua, head of the city's Public Security Bureau, explained how the existing campaign against hooliganism and disorder has now been stepped up to target the mafia-style gangs.

"We will combine our investigation and supervision efforts in the rural and urban areas where there is a large mobile population," Fu said. "We will target rental housing areas in the country and the key areas for public disorder, where it is easy to breed crime and provide shelter for mafia-like organizations and criminal gangs."

In addition, police will pay special attention to some important areas where organized crime is believed to have a presence, including construction sites, the housing demolition industry and illegal private investigation companies.

Physical places, including entertainment venues, major transportation hubs, farmers' markets and exhibition centers will also be closely monitored.

Meanwhile, police will keep a close eye on some key people thought to have organized-crime links, watching those involved with gang fights, people dominating public markets, those who cause disturbances, illegal security guards and people involved in extortion, prostitution, gambling and drug dealing, Fu said.

"Now is a critical moment in uprooting the mafia-like criminal gangs in the capital. We should actively cooperate with the industry and commerce department and tax bureaus to fundamentally wipe out the 'protective umbrella' and economic support of these mafia-like criminal gangs," Fu said.

On Sunday, Chongqing police ordered the local Hilton International Hotel to suspend its business after one of its shareholders came under suspicion for involvement with mafia-like gangs and providing shelter for prostitutes.

The crackdown follows a fact-finding mission between February and April by three work teams from the Comprehensive Control of Public Order Ministry which paid secret visits to the five main metropolitan cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangzhou to find out more about prostitution, gambling and drug dealing and the involvement of organized crime.

On May 11, Chaoyang police raided entertainment venues, including Passion Nightclub, No 8 Plaza KTV and Night Banquet Club, and found some were allegedly providing obscene shows and were allegedly sheltering prostitution.

On June 5, Nanjing police raided entertainment venues in that city also looking to disrupt the work of organized gangs. PolyGram Nightclub and Nanjing Red Cube KTV were ordered to suspend their business because they were providing shelter for prostitution. More than 100 suspects were arrested.

One day later, Guangzhou police arrested 600 suspects in a downtown KTV center in a similar initiative.