Mexico Probes Child Trade Rumors

A state prosecutor said several people arrested for offering to buy a child in Tijuana have reportedly confessed to stealing children, or buying them, some from their own parents, and sending at least four to the United States.

At least one child was allegedly handed over to the group by her own mother, apparently in exchange for about $1,000. She and three other children were sent, apparently in exchange for even more money, to "adoptive" families in New York, Florida and Virginia.

Authorities in the United States have been notified about the children, said Baja California assistant state prosecutor Maria Teresa Valadez. Most of the infants are less than a year old, she said.

The case came to light Nov. 18, when four people, including a U.S. citizen and a legal American permanent resident, were arrested in this border city after allegedly offering $5,000 to a father in exchange for his 3-year-old son.

One couple flagged down Jose Luis Garcia, while the Americans waited in a car nearby. The first couple told the father that the youngster would be sent to the United States, where he could have better opportunities.

Three more suspects were subsequently arrested in the case, and all seven, four women and three men, are now being held on suspicion of child trafficking. One suspect remains at large. Some have confessed to trafficking five children, according to Valadez.

The cases, in which prosecutors have names and addresses for the children in the United States, include a 15-month-old boy stolen from his mother and sent to New York.

A 2-month-old boy was handed over to the gang by his mother in August and was sent to Miami, Florida.

The same woman gave the gang a 1-year-old girl who was sent to a family in Virginia.

Another child, whose age and sex were not released, was also sent to Miami.

Finally a newborn girl was brought to Tijuana from the western state of Michoacan by the gang and handed over to other people; the girl's whereabouts are unknown, Valadez said.