The traffickers confessed they would have received 1,500 yuan (HK$1,688) transportation fee for each baby if they had reached their final destination - Linxin in Shandong .

They denied kidnapping and said the babies had been provided by an unidentified person. The five babies - a boy and four girls - ranged from just a few days old to two months.

They were taken to a children's welfare centre in Jiangyou after police failed to find their parents and were then sent to hospital for treatment. One was very sick, while another was suffering from inflammation of the navel, the paper said.

A spokeswoman at the centre said the babies were fed sleeping pills to prevent them from crying. She believed they were kidnapped around the time the quake struck, with some being taken from hospitals.

The trafficking was reported by a hostel owner in the city, the report said. She called police after her suspicions were raised when their 'mothers', who claimed to be disaster survivors from Beichuan , checked into her hostel instead of asking to live in a camp and did not seek any relief goods.

She also noticed that the babies spent all their time in a deep sleep.

The six said they were ordered by a crime boss to transport babies from Sichuan to Shandong after the quake.