Baby traffickers sentenced, 1 was father of victim
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Members of a baby trafficking ring received two to ten-year prison sentences on Wednesday for the buying and selling at least four baby girls in 2008 and 2009, one of which is the daughter of one member, according to the Beijing Railroad Transportation Intermediary Court.
Of the eight involved, four were stopped in June 2009 en route from Guangnan county in Yunnan Province to Pingshan county in Hebei Province to deliver four baby girls to clients. The four girls are currently in the custody of authorities.
The group had already sold three baby girls they purchased in Yunnan Province to families for 14,000 ($2,111), 19,900 ($3,000.92) and 25,000 yuan ($3,770) in May 2009.
One of the girls sold was the daughter of Xiong Wenjin, a father of three girls and one of the traffickers involved.
Xiong said he considers his daughters not as valuable as sons. "It's perfectly normal to sell one," Xiong was quoted as saying in a report by the Beijing Youth Daily.
Another member of the ring, Xing Zhihua, over 70, works under the guise of a matchmaker in Hebei province in order to scope out local families interested in purchasing a child.
According to public prosecutors, families in poverty-stricken areas often are willing to sell their children for a few thousand or even a few hundred yuan, while buyers are willing to pay tens of thousands, leaving traffickers a huge profit margin.
Guo Yingliang, who in his defense claimed he was only the driver, was sentenced as an accomplice. Guo agreed to drive the traffickers for 3,000 yuan($453), which was confiscated by the court.
Since the Ministry of Public Security launched its crackdown on human trafficking in April last year, Chinese police rescued 10,621 women and 5,896 children who had been abducted as of September 6, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
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