Local police have broken up a ring that attempted to sell a baby boy to a Vietnamese woman in China for up to US$2,220. Police officers in Mong Cai City of the northern Vietnamese province of Quang Ninh said they had arrested five human traffickers and rescued a baby boy.

The detainees include four women, Luong Thi Hien, 44, Vuong Thi Thanh, 44, Hoang Thi Tham, 25, and Hoang Thi Phuong, and a man, Truong Van Giap, 28, who is Tham’s husband. In late August, police caught Hien, hailing from the northern province of Son La, holding a baby, about 20 days old, when she was illegally crossing the border to China. From Hien’s testimony, police officers later arrested her four accomplices.  Police seized from Hien a surgery certificate issued on August 7, 2015 by the Hung Vuong Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City to Tran Thi Bich Tram, a 32-year-old woman in the city.   The certificate showed that Tram had been hospitalized for “giving birth by cesarean section.” Hien told police she was bringing the baby to China to deliver it to a woman named Hoa, a worker in Guangdong Province, who would buy the infant. Hien added that she had received the baby from Tham, of the north-central province of Nghe An, and her husband Giap following Hoa’s instructions.

After being apprehended, the couple said they had been given the baby by her mother, to whom they paid a sum in return. Tham said she needed to have such a boy in order to deliver him to Hoa under a “purchase order” placed by the latter. She told police that when she was in China as a co-worker with Hoa, the woman asked Tham to return to Vietnam to buy baby boys to provide them for Hoa for VND40-50 million ($1,780-2,220) each. Under the instructions of Hoa, Tham and her husband took the baby to Mong Cai and handed to Hien and Thanh on August 24, when Hien was arrested while trying to cross the border to China illegally, bringing the baby with her. Along with Hien, Thanh, Tham and Giap, police also detained Phuong for her involvement in the trafficking. Police in Mong Cai have coordinated with the local Department of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs to temporarily sent the baby to a children’s center for care, pending further investigation.