Police have arrested 18 people suspected of kidnapping children and women in southwest China and trafficking them across the country, state press reported yesterday.
Eight victims, including one child who was kidnapped and sold only seven days after being born, were rescued, the Beijing News said.
Police began investigating the crimes when several children in Yunnan Province began disappearing in May, the report said.
Following a two-month investigation, police cracked down on the ring, arresting the 18 suspected traffickers in Yunnan, neighboring Guizhou, and Henan and Shandong provinces to the north, it said.
Seven children, mostly aged between three and four but also including the newly born infant, were rescued and returned to their parents in Yunnan’s Quqing city. A woman, whose age was not given, was also rescued by the police, it said.
The report did not divulge the sexes of the children, nor did it say the total number of women and children that had gone missing in Quqing in recent months.
On Sunday, five of the suspected traffickers were brought under armed guard to Quqing where they are expected to face trial with the other 13 suspects, it said.
The report said the traffickers sold four of the children for a total of 42,000 yuan (about US$6,000).
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