A police officer in Qingyuan, Guangdong province, was arrested recently for online gambling and owing large sums of money, Guangzhou Daily reported on Monday.

Ling Ziqun, former director of the forest branch of Qingyuan public security bureau, was reported for gambling in February by an acquaintance surnamed Zheng who was Ling's guarantor for loans of more than 1 million yuan ($161,000).

According to a preliminary investigation, Ling was involved in 13 cases of private lending disputes over 4.6 million yuan in loans, excluding interest, from August 2010 to January 2014, and used the money to bet on football matches online.