They dismantle a transnational trafficking network for the surrogacy of wombs and the sale of babies
The Argentine Federal Police carried out multiple raids in the investigation of a transnational network dedicated to the exploitation of the bodies of pregnant women through the modality of surrogacy from Argentina. The transnational organization was dedicated to recruiting women in vulnerable situations; they offered economic compensation by renting their wombs to conceive children with the aim of selling them to couples of foreign origin, without residence in this country.
Investigations directed by the Ministry of National Security, together with the Argentine Federal Police, through the Human Trafficking Department with the collaboration of the Cybercrime Department, led to raids and production orders in different medical institutions, notary offices and legal offices in the provinces of Santa Fe and Buenos Aires, in search of documents and information linked to suspected cases of illegal intermediation of delivery of newborns through surrogacy to foreign citizens by Argentine women in vulnerable situations.
The investigation began following the presentation made by the Argentine Foreign Ministry, before the Federal Chamber, where it warned that the Argentine Consulate in Germany received an alert from the Provincial Directorate of Minors of Saarland, regarding the case of a 58-year-old woman who presented herself in a hospital in that town with a baby claiming to be the mother.
When examined by the medical staff, they found that the minor was in poor health conditions, so the German Justice Department removed the woman’s custody and handed her over to a substitute family. In the investigation, it was determined that the birth was registered in the Civil Registry of the City of Buenos Aires and that the fertilization was carried out in a private clinic in Buenos Aires.
Based on this fact and with the investigations carried out, it was possible to identify the minor’s surrogate and it was established that the fertilization process was carried out in a private medical institution located in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, where the treatment was carried out. of surrogacy.
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The federal agents established that it would be a transnational criminal organization dedicated to recruiting women in vulnerable situations, to whom, by offering financial compensation, they rented their wombs for the pregnancy of children, carrying out the treatment in fertilization centers. assisted centers located in the Federal Capital and Rosario, for the purpose of “surrogacy”, with the aim of selling newborn children to couples of foreign origin, without residence in this country.
The transnational organization was dedicated to recruiting women in vulnerable situations, offering them financial compensation by renting their wombs for the gestation of children with the aim of selling them to couples of foreign origin, without residence in this country.
Likewise, legal studies and notary offices participated in such maneuvers, which were in charge of the corresponding documentation regarding the mandatory consent for pregnant women, under the conditions that if anomalies were detected in the pregnancy, it must be interrupted and if the birth was normal, They would be separated from the child, obliging them in writing not to have contact with their children again.
With the total of the evidence obtained by the officers, the National Criminal and Federal Correctional Court No. 5 in charge of María Eugenia Capuchetti, Secretariat No. 10 in charge of Leandro Noguera ordered a total of 16 raids in the province of Buenos Aires, in Rosario, province of Santa Fe and five orders of presentation in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
As a result of the proceedings ordered and with the collaboration of the Office of the Prosecutor for Human Trafficking and Exploitation (PROTEX), a large amount of documentation proving the illicit activities was seized and placed at the disposal of the intervening magistrate.
