A former national police chief in Peru has been arrested along with his partner for allegedly belonging to a baby trafficking ring, Peruvian authorities say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police and prosecutors seized the former police general Raul Becerra in a dawn raid on his home on Tuesday along with his partner Cintia Tello. Both are accused of belonging to an organisation of more than a dozen people, including doctors, who took babies from poor women to sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0Read more<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A paediatrician and a gynaecologist were also arrested in what Peruvian police called a mega-raid in Peru\u2019s second largest city Arequipa, in the south of the country. Hundreds of police officers and dozens of prosecutors raided 18 homes and businesses and rescued a five-month-old baby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Retired police officer Raul Becerra was director of Peru<\/a>\u2019s national police force in 2010 but it is his partner Cintia Tello who is suspected of leading the trafficking ring, the police general, Walter Ortiz, told local media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The gang included hospital workers who would identify mothers they could potentially exploit, according to the prosecutors\u2019 investigation.F<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Among those arrested are two women who, it is alleged, secretly touted for backroom abortionists outside a hospital. They persuaded women considering abortions to accept money in exchange for their newborn babies, prosecutors said. Abortion is illegal in Peru unless the mother\u2019s health is at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cost of a baby was around 4,000 Peruvian soles ($1,187), prosecutors told local media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other members of the criminal organization cared for the babies in various locations while its leaders acted as intermediaries for potential clients, according to the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prosecutors are investigating whether the babies were offered for illegal adoption by foreigners or, possibly, for organ trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All those arrested are being investigated for organised crime, people trafficking and crimes against life and health. They are likely to be detained for at least a week during a preliminary investigation during which time they are not obliged to enter a plea. A former national police chief in Peru has been arrested along with his partner for allegedly belonging to a baby trafficking ring, Peruvian authorities say. Police and prosecutors seized the former police general Raul Becerra in a dawn raid on his home on Tuesday along with his partner Cintia Tello. Both are accused of belonging to an organisation of more… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2720,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2719\/revisions\/2720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"