CANBERRA, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A record 56 million dollars (39 million U.S. dollars) worth of property suspected of being proceeds of crime has been seized by Australia's Victoria Police, acting Premier of the state, Rob Hulls, announced on Monday.

    The haul includes real estate as well as luxury cars, boats and shares, etc.

    Hulls said Victoria's seizure laws were among the toughest in Australia and struck at the core of organized crime, hitting criminals where it hurt most -- their wealth.

    "It's particularly useful however in disrupting and deterring organized crime, removing, I guess, the trophies of criminals' disregard for the law and allowing authorities to attack sophisticated syndicates at their core," Australian Associated Press quoted Hulls as saying.

    Seizure laws were strengthened in 2004, giving police new powers to target high-level organized crime.

    In the past five years, police seized 412 million dollars (288 million U.S. dollars) worth of property from crime figures.