| Baby traffickers in north China's Hebei Province have admitted giving one-month-old infants sedatives to keep them quiet. Hebei police have caught five baby traffickers, all natives of southwest China's Guizhou Province, and rescued three of the five baby girls they sold this year, today's Yanzhao Metropolis Daily reported. The five girls are less than one month old. Police are continuing to hunt for the other two babies and the parents of the three rescued children as well as chasing other suspects involved. Police were alerted on April 30 when a couple who claimed to be husband and wife were reported to be acting suspiciously after checking in at a local hotel in Xingtang County in Hebei's capital Shijiazhuang City. Milk formula, clothes, napkins and other baby products were found in the couple's luggage though they did not arrive with a baby. Sedatives and 15,000 yuan (US$2,198.56) in cash were also found. The couple later confessed to police that they were not husband and wife, but partners in a baby trafficking ring. They told the police they were in the county to look for a buyer for a baby girl. The girl was with other ring members who were staying in another hotel in the county. Police raided that hotel, seized the other two and rescued the baby. The next day, police arrested a woman surnamed Yu who served as a broker for the baby sellers. Yu had been married to Xingtang for more than 10 years. On May 3 and 9, police located another two babies and caught the people who had bought them. Investigations so far show that the five-member gang had bought five girl babies this year, paying between 3,000 and 5,000 yuan in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, later selling them to farmers in Hebei for between 15,000 and 17,000 yuan. Police said the gang was cruel, using sedatives to keep the babies quiet when they traveled and making formula with cold water. The first baby rescued was taken to hospital running a fever and suffering intestinal tract diseases, police said. | 
