Five men were sentenced Thursday to death for the murders of four people by a 43-strong south China criminal gang.

Xu Jianqiang, who was also convicted of organizing the gang, received a capital sentence after a first instance trial at the court in Yangjiang City, Guangdong Province, for abetting the murders of three people.

The Yangjiang Municipal Intermediate People's Court handed down a death sentence to Li Jianding, who was convicted of murdering one person.

Lin Guoqin, Huang Bo and Lin Yueyun were sentenced to death, but they were all given a two-year reprieve.

Xu and Lin Guoqin, the ring leaders, were deprived of their political rights for life and fined 310 million yuan ($45.4 million) and 325 million yuan respectively, said the court's written verdict.

The other 38 gang members convicted Thursday received jail terms ranging from 15 months to life.

The verdict said the gang's crimes involved the murders of four people -- Ruan Shiguang, Zeng Jihui, Zeng Guangyin and Liang Kaizi -- in business disputes.

The gang members were also convicted of other crimes, including running illegal gambling dens, extortion, and lynch, it said.

Four companies under Lin Guoqin's name were convicted of crimes of illegal business operations, tax evasion and issuing false invoices, it said.

In November 2007, local police broke down the gangland organization, accused of having committed 94 crimes, with 12 guns and 36 bullets confiscated.

The case was among seven high-profile gang-related cases revealed by the Ministry of Public Security at a media briefing in September, said Liao Jinrong, deputy director of the criminal investigation bureau of the MPS.

Other six cases were dealt with in Beijing, Chongqing municipalities and Hebei, Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Henan Provinces.

China's police launched a long-term campaign against criminal gangs since 2006. As of September, 1,267 cases of gang crimes have been dealt with across the country, with more than 13,000 gangs broken up and at least 89,000 people arrested.