BEIJING, March 17 -- Police handled about 12,000 food-related cases and 8,500 drug cases in 2016, the Ministry of Public Security said Friday.

The cases mainly involved production and selling of counterfeit and harmful food, beverages, drug and medical equipment, according to the ministry.

In one case, police in east China's Jiangsu Province arrested 14 members of a counterfeit salt ring in a case worth more than 1.2 million yuan (around 175,000 U.S. dollars). They were suspected of packaging industrial salt as table salt and selling it on.

Another drug-related case, in central China's Hunan Province, involved nearly 500 people suspected of producing or selling a toxic diet drug containing sibutramine, a substance banned in China because of risk of cardiovascular disease.