Police have arrested 11 people suspected of trafficking more than a dozen women across China since 2005, authorities said Saturday.

The suspects were captured in Xingxian and Taigu counties in north China's Shanxi Province, where many of the women were initially sold, officials said. Police have freed two of the women and are trying to locate more than 10 others.

Police said the ring targeted women from rural areas in west China and sold them as wives to countryside bachelors in Shanxi. Buyers paid thousands or tens of thousands yuan for each woman.

Police said the operation was a difficult one as some of the victims were believed to have mental problems and some had also been trafficked out of the province.

The case is still being investigated.