Two men have been caught attempting to smuggle hundreds of Chinese teenagers into Costa Rica, Beijing police said yesterday.

Cen Shuiman, 43, and Zheng Anqiang, 36, both from Guangdong province, forged visas and application materials for more than 300 people, mostly teenagers, police said.

The human traffickers, which are better known as snakeheads, had worked with foreign counterparts, police said. They were detained earlier this year.

Lin Song, a spokesman for Beijing's entry and exit administration, told China Daily yesterday the police were investigating the whereabouts of the 300 people, but could not reveal whether some had already been transported to Central America.

He said they may have wanted to go to the United States or Europe for work.

"It is the first time Beijing has busted a ring that attempted to smuggle such a large number of people to Costa Rica," he added.

Snakeheads used the Caribbean nation as a "stopover" as it had established diplomatic ties with China in June 2007, Lin said. Details on the foreign criminals were not released, as the case was still under investigation.

Police started to look into the matter in December after the Costa Rican embassy reported it had received immigration applications from almost 300 Guangdong residents since the previous May.

The applicants claimed their parents resided in the country. However, police quickly discovered all their parents lived in China.

They apprehended Cen on Feb 25 and Zheng a month later. Both confessed they had started the human smuggling business last June.

More teenagers sought to sneak into foreign countries this year, with Beijing catching 23 teen stowaways between January to March, up 50 percent year-on-year. The youngest was 13.

(China Daily April 7, 2009)