The key facts

  • Six people have been arrested in Extremadura, including a mother suspected of selling her own children
  • According to the police, at least four children ended up in other families in Portugal
  • The exact number of children sold is unknown because they had no documents

Arrest in Extremadura

A child trafficking network has been uncovered in Extremadura, Spain: law enforcement detained six people, among them a mother of minors accused of selling her own children. The case is reported by El Caso, a retelling of which is cited by Gazeta.Ru.

What is known about the case

According to the outlet, the woman was dependent on banned substances, kept the children at home and never registered them officially. By the time of the sales, her sons and daughters were no longer infants. Since the children had no documents, it is impossible to determine exactly how many of them she gave away. The police believe that at least four of her children ended up in other families.

The scheme and the sums

According to the investigation, in some cases the woman received about five thousand euros (roughly 458 thousand rubles) per child and spent the money on drugs. The police believe the children were handed over to families in Portugal — deliberately, so that the minors would not remain on Spanish territory; she allegedly enlisted accomplices for this purpose.

Limits of the information

The information provided is based on a retelling of a report by the Spanish-language outlet El Caso; the original material itself is not available in the accessible sources. Official confirmation from the police, data on the children's fate and on the progress of the investigation are not given in the publications. The article ends with a reference to a separate case: it was previously reported that a resident of Rostov for years tortured and starved her sons — this is an independent story, unrelated to the case in Spain.