Hangzhou police on Monday detained a group of burglars, including 13 HIV carriers.

It is the first time that HIV-carrying criminal suspects in China have ever been detained by police, according to officials.

On November 15, patrol police captured three thieves in a local market and all of them said they were carrying HIV. Later, two of them were confirmed to be carrying the virus.

The three suspects confessed they belonged to a large burglary ring and most of its members have caught the virus through drug injection. Police caught another 26 members of the ring later.

One of the members, surnamed Qin, told police that they had purposely injected themselves in order to contract AIDS so as to scare away police.

So far, 13 of these suspects have been confirmed as carrying the HIV virus, while some others were found to have hepatitis-B and tuberculosis.

Some of these people were captured by police before, but each time, police had to let them go simply because they were HIV carriers.

The gang has been carrying out crimes in the city since 1999 and were involved in at least 600 cases. They have been placed in custody in groups.

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