Police have arrested 24 alleged baby-snatchers accused of abducting at least 15 children in under a year. The racket was smashed with the arrest of the last of the 24 suspects on Sunday, the Nanjing-based Yangzi Evening News said, quoting Hubei province police sources. The gang had snatched the babies from their parents, and sold most of them to buyers in Zhou county, the report said. The abductions were carried out for almost a year, from October 2000. The youngest of the victims was just 27 days old. The gang had earned over 100,000 yuan (HK$94,000) from the trade, it said. The report highlighted the case of migrant Wang Wenjun, who worked at a coal mine in Handan City. He lost his six-month-old child on October 19, 2000, when a rod-wielding man broke into his quarters in the middle of the night. The man took the baby and ran away before Wang and his wife could react. The report said police made their first arrest last April, when they caught suspect Liu Guchun. Through Liu, they managed to track down the 15 babies allegedly stolen. But officers were only able to trace the parents of five of the 15. In 2000, the Ministry of Public Security ordered a nationwide crackdown on human trafficking and rescued more than 140,000 children stolen from their parents. The Government admits human trafficking remains a problem in the countryside, where many children are left unattended and buyers are easily found.
