BEIJING, Dec. 26 -- Chinese railway police captured 11,572 suspects and seized 1,248 kg of various drugs during a crackdown on swindling and theft cases in railway stations over the past seven months.

A total of 12,540 such cases were solved and 21,850 people who had been at large had been hunted down as of Wednesday, according to a Thursday railway police authority statement.

Fake money worth up to 1.83 million yuan (301,401 U.S. dollars) has been confiscated and 122 women and children who had been held captive by the suspects were rescued during the campaign that started on May 16, the statement added.

As many as 153 gangs were uprooted during the campaign.

Three homemade pistols and 31 bullets were confiscated by railway police from northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province.

People working far from their hometowns scrambled for tickets home to be with their families ahead of China's Spring Festival, which falls on Jan. 31 this year. The holiday period is an especially active time for such crimes.