Head of Baby Trafficking Syndicate from Indonesia to Singapore Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison

The Bandung District Court has handed down guilty verdicts to 19 defendants in a case involving the sale of babies from Indonesia to Singapore. The sentences were delivered on Tuesday, 21 July 2026, with the longest prison term of seven years imposed on the syndicate’s ringleader.

Lie Siu Luan, also known as Popo or Ai, was identified as the mastermind of the human trafficking syndicate and received the heaviest sentence. The other 18 defendants received sentences ranging from three years and four months to six years and seven months. Among them, Lai Siu Ha, Astri Fitrinika, Elin Marlina, and Djaka Hamdani Hutabarat were each sentenced to six years and seven months. The remaining defendants, including Diana, Fui Lian, and Moi Lang, received three years and four months each.

According to the indictment, the syndicate operated between August 2023 and November 2024. Lie Siu Luan acted as an adoption agent, assigning roles to syndicate members that included falsifying adoption documents, housing and caring for the infants, and recruiting or abducting babies. The group used a modus operandi of fake adoptions, placing the children’s names on family cards and providing escorts to facilitate the creation of passports and the transportation of the babies to Singapore.

Prosecutors stated that a Singaporean citizen named Petter requested Lie Siu Luan to source babies for a fee of SGD 18,000, approximately Rp 204 million. An adoption agent from Singapore also supplied falsified adoption documents to ease the buying and selling process. The syndicate successfully sent three babies to Singapore, while seven others were intercepted and remain in Pontianak.