Guatemala's Attorney General's Office has received 22 reports of stolen children in seven months, indicating that the trade in illegal adoptions continues to flourish despite regulations, and also highlighting an even more disturbing phenomenon -- the use of children for organ trafficking. According to children's prosecutor Erick Cardenas, the majority of stolen babies are sold for irregular adoptions or for their organs. Cardenas said that hospital workers including doctors and midwives are themselves often involved in the illegal business, helping criminal networks get false birth certificates for newborns, reported Prensa Libre. In one reported case, an intruder dressed as a nurse is believed to have administered a sleeping pill to a new mother before taking her baby. The baby, who was later found abandoned, had apparently been stolen by a couple who wanted to be parents. Nonetheless, the case led to the investigation of nurses on duty at the time of the incident. Meanwhile, reviews of one hospital center found that staff fail to use electronic bracelets with an "intelligent chip" to identify the mother and child, even though the bracelet was introduced as a preventive measure against infant theft in 2012. InSight Crime Analysis Illegal adoption is a crime that has plagued Guatemala for decades. Despite measures taken in recent years, in June, the director of a Guatemalan child welfare center reported a resurgence in the sale of children. High levels of impunity for illegal adoption cases, coupled with a complex process for legal adoptions, contribute greatly to the perpetuation of the crime. Prior to 2007, when the country ratified an international convention on child trafficking, Guatemala was the second most common country of origin for adoptions in the world, with the vast majority of children sent to the United States. In 2008, Guatemala halted international adoptions due to growing concerns over child trafficking, though the measure has created serious complications for parents who were already in the process of adopting legally. The number of cases reported by the Attorney General's Office for 2013 shows that the trade in illegal adoptions is still alive, while Cardenas' comments suggest that child snatching is not limited to adoptions but also has even more sinister purposes -- organ trafficking, which is a rising phenomenon in Latin America, though one more commonly associated with adults.

Cartel member accused of kidnapping children to harvest their organs is captured in Mexico

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By Associated Press Reporter
PUBLISHED: 02:56 GMT, 18 March 2014 | UPDATED: 12:38 GMT, 18 March 2014
Police in Mexico’s western state of Michoacan detained an alleged member of the Knights Templar cartel who is suspected of kidnapping children to harvest their organs, an official said on Monday.

Michoacan state Public Safety Secretary Carlos Castellanos Becerra alleged that Manuel Plancarte Gaspar was part of the cartel’s organ-trafficking ring.

The ring would kidnap children and take them to rented homes with medical equipment where their organs were removed, Castellanos Becerra charged.

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The Knights Templar cartel in Mexico runs an organ-trafficking ring which has kidnapped young children

‘We have several statements in open investigations that point to a network of several suspects who would identify people with certain characteristics, especially children, and kidnap them,’ he said.

Castellanos Becerra said the cases go back several years, but he said he couldn’t give any specific details or discuss evidence because the investigation is still open.

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Plancarte Gaspar, 34, was detained last week along with another suspect in a stolen car. The men were carrying cash and crystal meth, Castellanos Becerra said. He said Plancarte Gaspar is the nephew of Enrique Plancarte Solis, a top Knights Templar leader.

Early in the day Castellanos Becerra sent an unusual Twitter message about the organ trafficking investigation. Mexican authorities don’t normally make big announcements on Twitter.

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Children are taken from school and transported in refrigerated containers to have their organs removed and then sold

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Plancarte Gaspar is the nephew of Enrique Plancarte Solis, pictured, a top Knights Templar leader

A leader of one of the local vigilante groups that sprang up last year in Michoacan to challenge the cartel’s control told a radio station after hearing about the tweet that people in the area knew the Knights Templar gang was involved in organ trafficking because several children had been rescued in his town while being transported in a refrigerated container inside a van.

‘They were inside a refrigerated box, tightly wrapped in blankets,’ Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles, leader of the civilian ‘self-defense’ group in Tepalcatepec, said in a morning interview with MVS radio.

Mireles said the van carrying the children was headed to the port city of Lazaro Cardenas and ended up in Tepalcatepec after making a wrong turn.

‘They were all children from the same Mexico City school,’ he said.

He said the children’s parents had allowed them to go on an outing to the beach when they were likely kidnapped. He said the children were turned over to their parents who traveled to Tepalcatepec.

Mireles didn’t say when the children were rescued and didn’t answer his cellphone Monday.

Mexican authorities have said drug trafficking is no longer the top source of income for the Knights Templar, which was once a top producer of crystal meth.

The officials say the cartel’s main sources of income are illegal mining, illegal logging and extortion.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2583135/Cartel-member-accused-kidnapping-children-harvest-organs-captured-Mexico.html#ixzz2wedJjP5g
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