The suspects are accused of conducting illegal excavations in Niuheliang, a Neolithic site in northeastern Liaoning province.
The site itself has been seriously damaged.
Police say the case is quite complicated as the site is remote and the gang was well organized.
Li chao is head of the local Public Security Bureau.
"The site is located in a remote area and it's hard to find. Nobody reported the case to us. Breaking the case was totally dependent on police officers finding evidence of the thefts from the site and teh investigation was quite difficult."
Luo Zhifeng is the deputy director of the bureau.
He says most of the suspected tomb robbers are close relatives and the gang had been operating in secret.
"Some of them are fathers and sons, some are brothers and some are husbands and wives. They formed a secret and long-term organization to escape from police raids. "
The recovered artifacts include a coiled jade dragon, one of the earliest known representations of the Chinese totem.
Police say the tomb raiders had a clear division of labor covering the whole process from excavation to sales.
Four archeologists are suspected of participating in the illegal excavations and in selling stolen artifacts.
Some certified artifacts dealers are accused of helping with the excavation and sales by doing real-time business at the excavation sites.
Wang Hongyan, a senior officer of the bureau, says the archeologists usually use their legal identity as a disguise.
"These dealer take advantage of their legal identity and of the fact that they are experts. And they are very familiar with the industry. Artifacts are sold quickly and traded frequently in a short time."
More than 1,000 police officers have participated in the operation.
The move is described as the biggest swoop of its kind since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.
For CRI, I'm Guo Yan.
