Mexico probes Irish adoption trafficking link

Mexican authorities probing an alleged child-trafficking ring which aimed to pass on babies to Irish couples for adoption have detained six women and taken 10 children into custody. The six suspects and children, aged between two months and two years, were held in the past week in western Mexico, said a spokesman for the attorney general's office in Guadalajara city, Jalisco state, on Tuesday. "Three people were provisionally detained on Friday and three others were taken in on Monday," Lino Gonzalez told AFP. The first three suspects were found in a house in Zapopan, near Guadalajara, where nine babies were found, Gonzalez said. They allegedly paid the mothers around 88 dollars a week during their pregnancies and provided them with medical help. Three others, who were picked up with another baby in a home in the town of Tonala Monday, also told authorities they had been hired as nannies. They were undergoing questioning Tuesday. "The presumption is that they gave the babies to Irish nationals," the spokesman said. Officials were investigating whether Irish citizens and Mexican mothers had been tricked by a smuggling ring. The Irish embassy in Mexico said in a statement that a consular official had traveled to Guadalajara to meet with the Irish nationals involved and local authorities. "Prospective adoptive parents have been advised by the Adoption Authority of Ireland not to enter into any private arrangements with individuals or private agencies in order to effect an adoption in Mexico," the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement.