Hong Kong Police said here Friday that 553 people were arrested in a large-scale anti-crime operation code-named "Windpipe."

The operation, concluded at 1:00 a.m. Friday morning, is aimed at curbing triad (a secret criminal group) revenue generating activities including those related to vice, illegal gambling, dangerous drugs, pornographic and pirated optical discs, and contraband goods.

During the operation, police have raided over 158 premises in Kowloon West Region and arrested a total of 553 persons, including 186 men and 367 women.

Police also seized 92,840 pieces of pornographic and pirated discs, 63,980 HK dollars (about 8266 U.S. dollars) worth of suspected dangerous drugs, 3,650 items of copyright infringing goods, and 421,120 dutiable cigarettes.

The total value of the seizures is estimated at about 4 million HK dollars.

A police spokesman said that police would continue to tackle triad activities by curbing their income generating sources.

Source: Xinhua