Chinese police have seized counterfeit cash with a face value of 178 million yuan (US$26 million) since a national campaign was launched on January 20, the Ministry of Public Security said Wednesday.

The police had resolved 271 of the 412 fake money cases they had been investigating and arrested 613 people during the campaign, the ministry said in a statement.

In southern Guangdong Province, police destroyed a major production plan, arresting all 13 suspects and confiscating notes with a face value of almost 100 million yuan, according to the statement.

In the southwestern Chongqing Municipality, police broke up a counterfeiting ring and confiscated 13.68 million yuan worth of notes.

In another major case, police in Luohe city, in central Henan Province, arrested 11 people when they broke up a production plant and confiscated fake banknotes with face value of almost 2 million yuan.

Since the end of last year, fake 100-yuan notes, most starting with serial number "HD90," have turned up in 10 provinces and regions, including Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang.

Other fake notes, with serial numbers beginning with TJ38 were also found in Haikou in southern Hainan province.

The case aroused public concern as some low-quality money detectors failed to catch the fake notes.

In the statement, the ministry ordered local police to maintain the crackdown on fake money to safeguard national financial order and the public interests.

The campaign, called "Action 09", aims to crack down on those producing, selling and spending fake notes.

During the 10-month campaign, the ministry is offering rewards of up to 300,000 yuan to those who provide information leading the breaking up of a counterfeiting ring.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2009)