Human-trafficking gangs cracked in E China

Two gangs that are suspected of smuggling over 180 citizens of a Southeast Asian country into China have been smashed in east China's Zhejiang Province, local border control police said on Friday.

The police have arrested six people so far.

The gangs are thought to have started to smuggle people to Zhejiang, China's manufacturing powerhouse, in June 2010, border control officers said.

Their activities were exposed after a border control squad found 15 foreigners illegally hired by a lamp factory. They could not produce any legitimate travel documents.

Based on the illegal immigrants' testimony, border control police arrested their alleged smuggler, a man surnamed Yang.

Yang told police that he himself was smuggled to China from the Southeast Asian country, but after seeing the business was so lucrative, he decided to smuggle his fellow countrymen.

Police later cracked another affiliated gang with information Yang gave.

The deportation process has started with the first batch of 15 sent home on Tuesday.