Police from east China’s Shandong Province rescued 37 babies in their latest crackdown on baby trafficking, nabbing 103 suspects, according to a China Central TV report aired on Monday night.

The suspects rented a factory in Jining City and allowed pregnant women from provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan to deliver babies there, CCTV said, as well as looking for newborn babies elsewhere.

Xie Xinxi, head of the city’s railway police, said boys were being sold for 80,000 yuan (US$12,900) while girls could fetch up to 60,000 yuan, according to the CCTV report.

Baby trafficking is rampant in rural Sichuan and Yunnan, the report claimed, with women too poor to care for their babies or who have a girl instead of a boy attracted by the money.

None of the babies was healthy when rescued because traffickers were treating them as commodities not human beings, CCTV said. Babies were placed in suitcases during transport, hidden in an abandoned mortuary and fed instant noodles and leftovers, according to police reports.

Seven babies were suffering from diseases that included AIDS and syphilis.

One 3-year-old girl has been returned to her mother. She had been sold by her grandmother and aunt for 42,000 yuan, police said.

The other 36 are with foster parents or in care. Police said it was unlikely they would be reunited with their families because it was their parents who had decided to sell them.