(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-09-07 23:45

NANJING -- Police in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, have nabbed 47 suspects over human trafficking and rescued 40 babies, said senior officers with the Nanjing railway police office on Friday.

A group of four women, each holding a newborn baby in arms but never breast-feeding the infants, arouse police suspicion on May 24 on a train from Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan Province, to Nanjing and were questioned.

The women, including one identified as Lang Chunyan from Tancheng County of East China's Shandong Province, confessed that the babies were bought from Yunnan and they had been doing so with the help of two other suspects, Dao Xiufen and Ding Fachang, since 2005. While Lang's husband, Shen Yuzhou, was in charge of selling babies with the help of 10 human traders in Shandong.

Lang also confessed that they usually buy a baby girl at 1,500 yuan (US$200) but sell it for 8,000 yuan, while a baby boy usually costs them 8,000 yuan and can fetch 20,000 yuan for them.

The Nanjing railway police set up a special team of more than 10 policemen to investigate the case.

The team arrived in Yunnan on May 27 and arrested Dao, Ding and seven other suspects. Shen was later arrested in Shandong.

Investigations found that the gang of human traders headed by Shen and Lang have bought 27 newborn babies in Yunnan during 16 trips and then sold them in Shandong.

Forty out of more than 60 babies who were trafficked by the gang have been rescued by police so far, while police were trying to find the others.