A Chinese court convicted 15 people, three surgeons included, for illegally removing and selling kidneys, according to NBC News.
The group's leader, Zheng Wei, was sentenced to 12 years in prison Wednesday while the 14 other members received sentences ranging from three and a half years to nine years, according to CRI English.
With 51 kidneys involved, it is the country's largest organ trafficking case, according to CRI English via People.cn.
The group, which takes kidneys from volunteer donors, has been active since 2010.
Donors would have their kidneys removed by three surgeons hired by Zheng, CRI English reported. They would only be paid $4,000 while their organ would be sold for close to $35,000, according to NBC News via the Beijing Times.
In a five-month period alone, they removed 23 kidneys and made $250,000 in profit.
The organs were kept on ice in disguised "seafood boxes" and transported 500 miles away to Beijing where the transplants were done at an unidentified "top hospital," NBC News reports.
The majority of the group's clients were patients in need of transplant operations.
Xinhua News Agency said close to 6.400 kidney transplants were performed last year in China.
