Vietnamese police arrest six people who belong to selling babies to China

Vietnamese police have arrested six people who allegedly belong to a ring that sells infants to China, state-controlled media reported Thursday. Police arrested three women in Mong Cai town in Quang Ninh province bordering China on Wednesday as they prepared to sell a 2-month-old baby across the border, the People's Army newspaper said. Another two women and a man were arrested Tuesday in Ho Chi Minh City.

Police in Quang Ninh province declined to comment Thursday. The province is located 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of Hanoi. The newspaper quoted ring members as telling police that they had sold two to three infants, mostly newborns, to China every month since they started the operation in August.

Ring members said they paid about 4 million dong (US$250; Ђ210) each for the babies, most of them abandoned at maternity hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, the paper said. It was unclear from the report who the ring members were paying to obtain the infants or how much the babies were sold for in China.

The newspaper said police are widening their investigation to determine whether hospital employees were involved.

Vietnamese police have busted dozens of trafficking rings in recent years that sold women and children to China and Cambodia, reports the AP. I.L.