Eight people suspected of paying thousands of dollars to adopt babies in northern Mexico under an illegal scheme have been detained, authorities have said.
The prosecutor's office of Sonora state, which borders the United States, issued arrest warrants last Thursday against 16 people in the case over the illegal adoptions of nine children.
The eight people who were arrested have shown the attitude of any "loving parent and they have cooperated with the investigation," Sonora chief prosecutor Carlos Navarro told Milenio television yesterday.
"They never acted like your classic criminals," Navarro said.
They are among eight of 14 people wanted for allegedly paying for the adoptions.
Three of the nine babies have been found by the prosecutor's office.
One of the other suspects sought by the authorities is Vladimir Arzate, deputy director of the child protection section of the prosecutor's office who asked couples for money to "speed up" the adoption process, Navarro said.
An arrest warrant was also issued against a doctor who signed fake birth documents in which the adoptive parents appeared as the biological parents.
The child protection unit of the Sonora prosecutor's office handles the paperwork for adoptions and deals with pregnant women in high risk situations such as poverty and drug addiction.
Since 2011, Arzate used information on parents seeking to adopt and vulnerable pregnant women for his scheme, Navarro said.
Some of the biological mothers "did not want" to keep the children, but there are no documents showing any agreements between the adoptive parents and the pregnant women, the prosecutor said.
