Court sentences 15 human traffickers

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-23 13:40

JINAN -- Fifteen Chinese "snakeheads", or human traffickers, were jailed for up to 11 years in east China's Shandong Province on charges of smuggling 111 people into other countries and regions, a court spokesman said Friday.

Five principal defendants were given terms of seven years to 11 years in sentencing Tuesday at the Huancui District People's Court in Weihai City, the spokesman said. Each was also fined 100,000 yuan (US$14,706) to 120,000 yuan, he said.

The other 10 people received sentences of less than seven years and varying fines.

The court heard that the 15 "snakeheads" smuggled people to Israel, the Republic of Korea, Macao and other destinations between 2006 and early 2008. The stowaways, from eight provinces such as Shandong, Hebei and Fujian, went abroad to work illegally.

The "snakeheads" used different smuggling methods, such as using fake exit papers, hiding the stowaways in containers or organizing them to sneak across borders, the court heard.

The smuggling cases were cracked between October 2007 and July 2008.

Most of the stowaways have been repatriated.