SHIJIAZHUANG, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Police have busted a fake cigarette manufacturing and sales network in north China's Hebei Province and detained 93 suspects, local authorities said Thursday.

About 17.6 tonnes of tobacco, three machines, and more than 76,000 cartons of counterfeit cigarettes worth 780 million yuan (around 120 million U.S. dollars) were confiscated, according to police in Hengshui city in Hebei.

The fake cigarettes were traded online.

Hebei police cracked the bogus cigarette trafficking ring after a 7-month investigation and cooperation with police departments in a dozen provinces including Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang.