16 people wanted in connection to child trafficking ring
Written By Michel Marizco
VLADIMIR ARZATE
JOSE MANUEL HERNANDEZ
State police in the
Mexican State of Sonora have filed arrest warrants for 16 people wanted
in connection with a child trafficking ring.
Prosecutors allege that children were sold in an adoption scam that went on for three years. The children were put up for adoption, but never registered with the state agency charged with caring for them.
The accused ringleader of the group was Vladimir Arzate. He is a state employee who controls the state’s amber alert system and was an assistant director of the state’s child and family welfare agency.
Also accused is Jose Manuel Hernandez, the lawyer for a major Sonoran cattlemen’s lobbying group.
The two men allegedly purchased birth certificates and fingerprints of children born at a state-run hospital, from a doctor working in the hospital. The children were then sold to people seeking children to adopt.
At least nine children were found in the trafficking ring. The Sonoran Attorney General’s Office is still searching for all the biological mothers.
Prosecutors allege that children were sold in an adoption scam that went on for three years. The children were put up for adoption, but never registered with the state agency charged with caring for them.
The accused ringleader of the group was Vladimir Arzate. He is a state employee who controls the state’s amber alert system and was an assistant director of the state’s child and family welfare agency.
Also accused is Jose Manuel Hernandez, the lawyer for a major Sonoran cattlemen’s lobbying group.
The two men allegedly purchased birth certificates and fingerprints of children born at a state-run hospital, from a doctor working in the hospital. The children were then sold to people seeking children to adopt.
At least nine children were found in the trafficking ring. The Sonoran Attorney General’s Office is still searching for all the biological mothers.
