The husband and wife,
both in their early 30s and identified only as Teng and Zhang, face
multiple charges of trafficking of women and children, the state-run
Xinhua news agency reported Friday. The husband is in custody, and his
wife posted bail, China's Ministry of Public Security said.
Shanghai police began
investigating the couple in May after receiving tips that they used QQ, a
popular Chinese instant messaging system, to place an ad for their
newborn girl, the ministry said. Police found the couple by tracing the
IP address from their ad.
Police arrested them in June.
After their arrest, the
couple admitted selling three of their newborn babies in recent years
for a total of $13,000, the ministry said. They sold the first baby in
2008, the second in 2011 and the third -- the girl -- this year, the
ministry said.
Authorities recovered the girl and are now looking for the other two children, the ministry said.
Neighbors told police the
couple live with two of their children, ages 6 and 9. The neighbors
also said the wife appeared pregnant in each instance, but the newborns
were gone shortly after being delivered, the Ministry of Public Security
said.
Through tracing the
wife's credit card and bank transactions, police determined the couple
spent all of their sale proceeds on iPhones and luxury shoes, Xinhua
reported. The Ministry of Public Security said the couple also bought
computers and that police recovered the items from the couple's home.
The couple told police
they sold their newborns in the hopes the babies would get a better
life, Xinhua reported, and that buyers voluntarily gave them the money.
The couple reportedly said they never asked for payment.
The selling of babies in China has been a problem in the past.
In 2011, the Ministry of
Public Security announced that a cross-provincial investigation busted
two baby-trafficking rings and rescued 29 newborns in the eastern
province of Shandong. The babies were purportedly sold by their
biological parents in southwestern China's Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan
provinces, the ministry said.
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