The 19 members of a child trafficking ring, mostly women, received court sentences in central Henan Province for selling 14 babies between 2006 and 2011, the Procuratorial Daily reported today.

Yu Laodai was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for trafficking four babies and causing one to die from lack of care. Jiao Yuping, the ring leader, was sentenced to life in prison. Other seven members received sentences of more than ten years, the report said.

Jiao was directly involved in the sales of nine children in Henan, Shanxi, Shandong and Guizhou provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from 2006 to 2011, the court heard.

Jiao and her partners acted as agents to sell children for their biological parents and earn a commission of thousands of yuan for the sale of one child, the prosecutors said.

The gang had a clear division of duties. Some were responsible for collecting buyer and seller information; some worked with parents to persuade them to sell their kids; some bargained with buyers, and some pretended to be parents to deliver the sold child.

Many convicts including Jiao and Yu said in the court that they thought they were doing something good for both parents and buyers, but their claim was rejected by the prosecutors as they didn't obtain adoption certificates and earn profits from child-trafficking.