Guangzhou police busted a major cross-province salt storage and sales network and seized 283.35 tons of artificial salt.

Police in the Guangdong province capital city teamed up with authorities in Shandong and Hunan provinces and arrested 12 suspects for allegedly producing and selling more than 5,000 tons of fake salt totaling 20 million yuan ($3.23 million).

Since May, authorities have destroyed secret storage and sales locations in the three provinces, according to a press release from the Guangzhou public security bureau of on Tuesday.

Prompted by public complaints, local police immediately established a special task force to investigate the sale of artificial salt and MSG, or monosodium glutamates, in Guangzhou's Huangpu and Luogang districts last October.