CHENGDU: Seventeen government officials in Sichuan province have been found to have ties to criminal gangs since police intensified their crackdown on organized crime in 2006.

Xu Shenglin, former chief of the Wutongqiao District Bureau of Public Security in Leshan, and Li Changyun, the district's former chief procurator, are being tried in Leshan for covering up for a criminal gang and taking bribes.

According to the Sichuan Provincial Department of Public Security, the two high-ranking officials helped a gang leader evade punishment after he incited his members to kill an innocent person in 1995.