GUANGZHOU, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Police in south China's Guangdong Province have busted a major online gambling case, seizing and freezing a total 215 million yuan (34 million U.S. dollars) of property and funds.

Local police arrested more than 140 suspects, seized 130 million yuan worth of property and froze 85 million yuan of funds, the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Public Security said Thursday.

Police authorities in the city of Jiangmen received a tip-off regarding the online gambling in late October last year and launched an investigation.

The criminal ring opened casinos on six websites and had agents in 12 cities in Guangdong and three more in neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the investigation showed.

In operations in several cities in Guangdong and Guangxi on March 12, police captured more than 110 members of the ring. In follow-up operations on April 2, police detained another 30 people.

A spokesman for the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Public Security said local police would step up crackdown on porn, gambling, and food and drug safety crimes to better protect the safety of citizens.