The head of a criminal gang that smuggled over 5 million mobile phones from Hong Kong to Guangdong Province between 2006 and 2008 was sentenced to death with a 2-year reprieve Monday in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province.

Huang Xiaokai, the executive manager of the Shenzhen-based Kaiqi Company, smuggled more than 5.26 million mobile phones from Hong Kong to Guangdong Province starting in 2001 with the help of 11 other smugglers, the Guangzhou Daily reported Tuesday.

The total value of the smuggled mobile phones topped 7.8 billion yuan ($1.2 billion), and Huang's criminal gang evaded more than 1.1 billion yuan ($165 million) in taxes.

Huang was convicted of smuggling and illegally crossing the border. The Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court announced the verdict of Huang's first trial Monday.

The other smugglers were sentenced to between 1 and 14 years' imprisonment, and received fines of up to 500,000 yuan ($75,097).

Huang's underground business was exposed on July 3, 2008, when 13 people hired by Huang were seized while going through customs in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province. They were found to have attached some 1,000 mobile phones to their bodies under their clothes.

Huang promised to pay up to 10 yuan ($1.5) for each mobile phone the smugglers carried, the Guangdong-based Nanfang Daily reported.

The case is the third largest smuggling case in Chinese history, the report said.

Huang also rented speedboats to smuggle mobile phones from Hong Kong to Shenzhen and even rented an illegal underground tunnel between Hong Kong and Shenzhen for the business.