TWO ringleaders of an infant trafficking gang, based in mountainous Ya'an City of southwest China's Sichuan Province, were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
Cai Liaochao and Chen Hongfeng were accused of selling 14 babies between July 2010 and May 2011, the Ya'an City Intermediate People's Court said.
Four other gang members received jail terms of between three years to 15 years.
The court said the gang purchased newborn babies from poverty-stricken families and sold them in Shandong, Fujian and Henan provinces. A boy was priced at 30,000 (US$4,818) to 40,000 yuan and a girl 10,000 to 20,000 yuan.
Their crime came to light when three of them were caught trafficking three babies from Sichuan to Shandong in May 2011. Cai and Chen were given the death sentence because they were jailed five years earlier for the same crime, the court said.
China has seen many cases of poverty-stricken families in southwestern regions selling their children to sterile couples in big cities to earn a living. In a significant case in July, young mothers from Sichuan and Yunnan were among 802 suspects arrested for abducting and trading 181 children.
Police rescued 8,660 abducted children and 15,458 women while busting 3,195 human trafficking gangs last year.
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