6 Vietnamese suspected of trying to sell babies arrested

Associated Press Archive

Dateline: HANOI, Vietnam

Chinese police arrested six people suspected of trying to sell two newborn Vietnamese babies as part of a baby-trafficking ring, Vietnamese authorities said Wednesday.

Police in the Chinese border town of Dongxing detained the six Vietnamese -- four men and two women -- as they allegedly were transporting two 10-day-old boys inside China just beyond the border, said Nguyen Thai Binh, deputy police chief of Mong Cai in northern Vietnam.

Chinese police made the arrests after acting on a tip from Vietnamese authorities monitoring a smuggling ring, he said.

The initial investigation showed that the six allegedly were paid by ring leaders in Ho Chi Minh City to transport the two babies to China to sell them, Binh said.

The suspects were handed over to Quang Ninh provincial police for further investigation, and the two babies were taken to a social welfare center, he said.

Binh said police in Quang Ninh province will cooperate with Ho Chi Minh City police in investigating where the two babies came from, he added.

Last week, Vietnam announced it would stop processing new adoption applications from U.S. citizens after July 1 following allegations of baby-selling, corruption and fraud.

The announcement came days after The Associated Press published details of a U.S. Embassy report that alleged rampant abuses, including hospitals selling infants whose mothers could not pay their bills, brokers scouring villages for babies and a grandmother who gave away her grandchild without telling the child's mother.