A worker produces medical masks at Liaoning Shengjingtang Biotechnology Co., Ltd in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, April 14, 2020. The company has been actively manufacturing medical masks that will be exported overseas. (Xinhua/Yang Qing)

In response to organized criminal activities that involved reselling melt-blown fabric to reap large gains, Chinese authorities have cracked down on 42 profiteers involved in 20 cases, with the amount reaching 34.45 million yuan ($4.87 million).

Since the coronavirus outbreak, many lawbreakers have stockpiled and resold melt-blown fabric, the core of medical masks, to seek exorbitant profits through raising prices or arranging fictitious transactions, the Ministry of Public Security told the Global Times. 

As a result, the market price of the fabric has soared, which has seriously disturbed the normal production order, hurt the legal interests of consumers, and disrupted epidemic prevention and control work, the ministry said. 

On March 9, the local police in Dongguan, South China's Guangdong Province, arrested two criminal suspects who allegedly resold the fabric and reaped exorbitant profits of more than 8.5 million yuan. 

The two suspects imported the fabric from India and Argentina through a Chinese trading company and signed a contract for 60 tons of the fabric in mid-February. The purchase price was 96,000 yuan per ton. 

However, they later signed contracts for more than 50 tons of fabric with companies in East China's Jiangxi and Jiangsu provinces and South China's Guangdong Province with the highest selling price hitting 350,000 yuan per ton - about 3.6 times the purchase price. 

The police imposed criminal detention on the two people, citing suspicion of illegal business operations. 

Another case in which the fabric's transaction price was pushed up 13 times in Central China's Henan Province is also being investigated by the local police. 

In addition, 21 people from East China's Zhejiang Province produced more than 10 tons of unqualified melt-blown fabric by adjusting their production lines formerly used to make sound-proof cotton for autos. 

Standard melt-blown fabric should be able to filter out 95 percent of the virus, but the filter rate of the unqualified fabric was relatively low. 

Officials at the ministry underscored "zero tolerance" for criminal behavior related to medical supplies, and it urged those attempting to become rich at such a critical time to stop.