CHONGQING: Seven senior officials from the local government and law enforcement agencies in Chongqing suspected of ties to organized crime are the subject of a growing investigation targeting criminal gangs.

Among the high-profile officials caught up in the crackdown, Chen Honggang, chief of the city's traffic police section, has been put under shuanggui, which is the name given to a procedure in which a Communist Party of China (CPC) member is asked to confess to wrongdoings before a CPC committee's discipline inspection commission.

Chen is suspected of involvement with criminal gangs.