Vietnam police bust baby trafficking gang

Agence France-Presse

HANOI -- Vietnamese police have arrested four people this week for trafficking babies, including one yet to be born, for adoption inside the country or in China, authorities here said Wednesday.

Hoang Duc Hien, 60, and his wife Tham Thi Hoa, 47, were arrested Sunday at a Hanoi bus station, where they were caught with two babies and a mother from southern Vietnam who was in her eighth month of pregnancy, police said.

The pregnant woman had agreed to sell the unborn baby for eight million dong ($500) after the child's father had abandoned them, a police officer said, confirming a report in the police-run newspaper An Ninh Thu Do.

"This is the first time we have caught a human trafficking syndicate in a case where the baby was still in the womb," the police officer told Agence France-Presse, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Authorities believed the gang bought Vietnamese baby girls for $500 each and boys for $1,000 and sold them for about twice that amount, the police officer told AFP.

Police Monday detained two more women, Nguyen Thi Thinh, 42, and Trinh Thi Nga, 27, who were also suspected members of the baby-trafficking gang.

The infants have been handed over to local children's hospitals, the police officer said.