Attica Security Police, in collaboration with their Bulgarian counterparts, on Tuesday broke up an organised gang of Greek and Bulgarian traffickers of pregnant women from Bulgaria to Greece for illegal adoptions, after an investigation that lasted nearly eight months.
In coordinated operations, seven gang members were arrested in Greece and five more in neighboring Bulgaria, charged with kidnapping a minor, while the involvement of more members is being investigated.
The case came to light after information conveyed to Greek police by the Bulgarian authorities via Interpol that the gang was approaching Roma women in Bulgaria, in the final stages of pregnancy and, taking advantage of their bad financial situation and vulnerable position, would convince them to come to Greece to give birth and turn the infants over to the gang.
The infants were then given over for adoption to Greek couples located by other gang members, for 20,000-25,000 euros each.
The gang also took by force the newborns of the women who refused to turn over their infants, and issued forged documents (birth certificates, etc) for adoption.
Greek police located the gang leader, a resident of Fthiotis prefecture, and placed him under discrete surveillance. The investigation turned up at least 17 women over the past year that were smuggled into Greece to give birth in Greek hospitals, while the newborns were afterwards adopted by Greek families.
Upon completion of the investigation, a coordinated operation took place in Athens and Lamia in Greece, and in the Bulgarian cities of Varna and Burgas, where the gang members were arrested, including the gang leader in Lamia, in whose residence police found a 3-week-old infant girl taken forcibly from its 29-year-old Bulgarian mother and destined for sale.
The detainees will be led before a public prosecutor on Wednesday morning.
source: ana-mpa
