24.10.2009. / Source: Blic
Everything is for sale, especially in the times of crisis and poverty! The Bulgarian police have broken a human trafficking ring and arrested two persons under suspicion of smuggling pregnant women to Greece, where they organized the sale of babies for adoption.
The police say that this couple organized 13 pregnant women to go from Bulgaria to Greece, where they had their babies and, with lawyers’ assistance, sold them for adoption. The price of one baby varied between EUR 6000 and 8000, while the pregnant women received a usual rate of EUR 5000.
The arrested spouses, whose names have not been revealed, are 38-year old Bulgarian nationals, while, according to the police, pregnant women are mostly poor and of Roma origin, who wanted in this way to provide for their families. It is interesting that the arrested couple sold their own two children in Greece only a couple of years ago.
Reuters reports that the arrested couple had very well organized business in Greek hospitals, ensuring financial compensation for everyone involved in trafficking in babies.
“We’ve found a well-organized human trafficking ring. Lawyers and judges are involved”, Tchavdar Bojourski, police chief in the southern region of Sliven said to the news agency Focus.
According to unofficial information, the Bulgarian media report that further arrests are expected. The couple who was organizing babies trafficking was arrested at the border checkpoint Kulata between Bulgaria and Greece. They are from Lyubenova, near Nova Zagora.
On several occasions in recent years the EU was warning official Sofia that it had to tackle organized crime in order to gain access to all funds.