OVER 30 mafia-style rings have been busted by the anti-mafia intelligence division under the city’s public security bureau by using big data, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

Police officers utilize big data to locate gangs. “Our work is dreary as we deal with data and models,” said Mo Ran, the officer in charge of the division.

Last September, the division received a tip-off from a resident that a man had been operating an illegal gambling den in Longgang District.

“This was all the information we had at that time,” said Mo.

Although resources are limited, Mo and his colleagues managed to locate the ring engaged in gambling business led by a man surnamed Liao based on the key person and the key word, gambling.

“We looked up more than 1,000 records and checked over 1,000 people,” said Mo.

Compared to traditional investigation methods, using big data achieved a breakthrough as it cracked the case by utilizing personal information, according to Jie Shen, Mo’s colleague.

“With data we can program models to help analyze cases, which makes our investigation more efficient,” said Jie.

(Wang Jingli)