BEIJING -- Prosecutors from Taiwan have visited the mainland over the past few days to discuss further cooperation in dealing with a recent major phone fraud case, said a mainland spokesman Wednesday.

In February, mainland police escorted 24 suspects involved in the case back from the Philippines, including 14 Taiwan residents.

The mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) has helped the relatives of the Taiwan suspects visit the mainland to see the suspects in custody, said Yang Yi, spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, at a regular press conference.

Yang said the mainland and Taiwan had been in close contact over the case. Since February, the two sides' police, under a cross-Strait agreement on judicial assistance, had visited each other to communicate the latest progress and relevant evidence in the case.

The suspects were allegedly involved in a phone fraud ring that had cheated 400 mainlanders spread across China out of 140 million yuan (21.5 million U.S. dollars) since October 2010.

A total of 178 suspects had been arrested, and the police had seized four guns, over 8,000 bank cards, 43 computers and 11 vehicles involved in the case.