Malaysian police said on Friday they have broken up a child trafficking syndicate and rescued 21 children and babies.
Police in the northern state of Penang said 23 women and 20 men suspected of trying to buy the children were detained on Thursday night, following a nationwide operation which began late last December.
Some 33 people who ran the trafficking syndicate were arrested last month when police rescued eight babies, the national news agency Bernama reported.
The traffickers offered poor foreign women up to US$1,500 for their children, it said. Earlier reports have said such children can be sold on for as much as US$6,000.
The babies found on Thursday night were aged between a month and nine years, Penang police chief Rahim Hanafi said in a statement on the force’s Facebook page.
Police made raids in six states and the capital Kuala Lumpur to rescue the 10 boys and 11 girls, media reports said.