Indonesia baby-selling ring broken up

Indonesia baby-selling ring broken up

Malaysian police said on Tuesday they had arrested nine people in a baby-selling case reportedly involving 27 Indonesian infants over the last six months.

A police spokeswoman said five Indonesians were among the nine arrested, who included two elderly women caught in a police trap after offering to sell a 25-day-old baby girl for 18,000 ringgit (US$4,737 dollars).

A woman who had been offered the baby called the police who then set the trap, she said.

The girl was born to an Indonesian woman living in Malaysia and the mother told police she was to have been paid 3,000 ringgit for her baby, the spokeswoman said.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Mustafa Abdullah told the New Straits Times that a total of 27 Indonesian babies are believed to have been sold for between 10,000 and 18,000 ringgit each since June last year.

"We expect to make more arrests as the racket is believed to involve a syndicate," he said.

Police were investigating the possibility that the syndicate could have connections within Malaysia's National Registration Department as a Malaysian birth certificate had been obtained for the rescued baby.

The police chief appealed to anyone who might have bought one of the infants to surrender them to the authorities. -- AFP