GUANGZHOU police have busted a gang that was led by foreigners, arresting 16 suspects of foreign nationalities and two Chinese people, the authorities announced Tuesday.

    The gang, known as the Freedom Fighters, is the fist “mafia-style” group led by foreigners to be broken up in the provincial capital of Guangdong, according to local police.

    Led by two foreigners, identified as Odunukwe Chinedu and Abdoulaye, whose nationalities were undisclosed, the gang is suspected of drug trafficking, robbery, blackmail, violent attacks and illegal detainment. The victims included many expatriates, police said without revealing details.

    Spurred by a tip-off, police launched raids in the cities of Guangzhou, Foshan and Dongguan between January and April. On Feb. 6, hundreds of police officers in the three cities arrested 11 foreign suspects and two Chinese men, confiscating a large quantity of cocaine and gang uniforms. Another three suspects were netted in Guangzhou and Dongguan on April 16.

    Set up in 2009 in Guangzhou, the gang had a formal hierarchy and strict rules. It had more than 20 members at its height, according to police. It intimidated new members into joining the gang and collected membership fees from newcomers.

    The number of African immigrants in Guangzhou has reached 200,000 to form the largest African community in Asia, according to a research report released by the Guangzhou Development Academy at Guangzhou University in August last year.

    The report said that most Africans in the city were illegal residents, which poses a security risk.

    The report also gave suggestions on how to deal with this problem, including the establishment of information-sharing platforms for foreigners, alongside a crackdown on underground agents who provide fake employment certificates.

    In 2012, Guangzhou police arrested 300 Africans involved in drug trafficking.

    About 594,000 foreigners were living on the Chinese mainland as of last August, with Guangdong Province hosting the largest number at 316,138, according to data from the sixth national census released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

    (Li Jing)