CHONGQING - A Chongqing Municipality court Wednesday sentenced a gangster death for killing a person in an attempt to manipulate pork price in the city markets.

The Fifth Intermediate People's Court of Chongqing sentenced Zhou Zhijian, a member of a gang which had gained huge profits from coercive trading and pork market monopoly, to death for murder.

The court also sentenced ringleader Zhou Zuyun death with a two-year reprieve after convicting him of racketeering, monopolizing the pork market, and organizing a price-fixing cartel with other gangs.

Another 16 gang members were given prison terms ranging from 16 months to 19 years.

The verdict said Zhou Zuyun and his gang reaped profits of over 119 million yuan ($18.8 million) from coercive trading, racketeering and illegally hiking the rents of the farm markets that they had monopolized since 2004.

Zhou's price-fixing cartel manipulated prices, sales and purchases, pushing up pork prices in Chongqing.

The gang disrupted the economic and social order by the use of force and threats, the verdict said.