Frontier police in Dalian, a port city in northeast China, cracked a human trafficking ring and caught 31 stowaways on Friday, local authorities said.

The would-be migrants, who hailed from the southeastern Fujian, northeastern Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, were arrested en route to the port on a bus, police said.

Police later stopped a car and arrested three "snakeheads", or human smugglers, who were directing trafficking with their cell phones.

All the stowaways, ranging from 28 to 47 years, were required to pay the snakeheads 75,000 yuan (about 10,000 U.S. dollars) once they got to the Republic of Korea (ROK).

Statistics said 105 people were arrested on suspicion of trying to stow away from Dalian Port last year.

(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2008)