Vietnam gang 'smuggled 30 babies'

A baby-trafficking ring in Vietnam sold as many as 30 infants in just six months, smuggling them over the border into China, investigators have found.

Police in Hanoi arrested four suspects in February while they were trying to take two babies out of the country.

Since then, the authorities have detained three more and the hunt for others connected to the gang continues.

Among those detained was an eight-month pregnant woman who had agreed to sell her unborn baby.

Detectives in the Hoan Kiem district of Hanoi said in a six-month period from July 2007 to February 2008, the ring had smuggled up to 30 babies, mostly newborn, to China.

But the total of smuggled children might be much higher as the gang had been active before that, officials said.

The district police said the scale of the ring's activities was so large that they had to transfer the case to central police to follow up.

It is believed that the smugglers had been scouring for babies and pregnant women from poor families in rural areas across the country.

They paid between 7m dong ($440; £220) and 20m dong for each baby - boys usually costing more than girls.

The babies were then transferred to Quang Ninh province on China border and offered for adoption.