Gang activity in Guangdong poses 'serious threat'

A senior police officer is urging cities and counties in Guangdong province to establish task forces to fight violent gangs involved in drugs, crime, counterfeiting and vote-buying in local elections.

Task forces headed by top local police officers will act as "daggers into the hearts of the gangs" in the province's rural areas, said Lin Weixiong, director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau under the Guangdong Provincial Department of Public Security.

"The gangs that have become active in some areas have posed a serious threat to grassroots governments and organizations via vote-buying and other illegal means to interfere with township and village elections in the southern province of Guangdong," Lin said on Thursday at a news conference in Guangzhou, the provincial capital.