IN A "MASS CAMPAIGN" AGAINST CLENBUTEROL that has lasted almost six months, police authorities cracked 120 cases and arrested nearly 1,000 suspects, uncovering a "network" that covered 105 counties and 63 cities and prefectures in 17 provinces.

Clenbuterol is one of the now-banned chemicals illicitly used to produce lean meat in animal husbandry. They have serious side effects on human health. An earlier media expos of their use in pig farms prompted the high-profile crusade launched in March.

So far, six laboratories, dozens of factories and storehouses producing and supplying clenbuterol have been closed down, and 2.5 tons of the toxic chemical have been confiscated.