Police in northern Greece crack down on illegal adoption ring

A police operation that took several months to wrap up has led to the arrest of six suspects allegedly involved in an illegal adoption racket, according to reports on Thursday.

Police in Katerini, northern Greece, are reportedly questioning four men and two women, all Bulgarian nationals, believed to be behind at least 13 illegal adoptions in the past three years.

The gang would allegedly locate Bulgarian women in their final months of pregnancy and arrange for the babies to be adopted by couples in northern Greece and in the capital, charging between 6,000 and 8,000 euros for each infant.

The gang provide the expectant women with accommodation and arrange for them to deliver at clinics in the Pieria area, taking delivery of the infants shortly after. The birth mother would then get a cut from the sale of the baby.

It was not clear whether the adoptive parents will face prosecution, nor whether the children will be put in the care of the state or charities.