FEDERAL INVESTIGATIONS INTO BABY SMUGGLING RINGS

A three-year investigation conducted by the FBI, the IRS, Canadian and Hungarian police has led to a nine count indictment of two attorneys, one in the US and one in Canada, on charges of conspiracy and smuggling people.  According to the indictment, associates of the US attorney would offer to buy babies from Hungarian women, and bring them to the US, via Canada, to arrange the adoptions. 

Authorities say the adoptive parents paid the attorney to bring the birth mothers into the US, as well as for their medical care and the legal fees for the attorneys who have been indicted.  They also paid between $8,000 and $22,000 for a child.  The mothers returned to Hungary after giving the children up, and they are apparently facing charges there.  The children remain in the US with their adoptive parents. 

Following the indictment and conviction of two women from New York and an attorney from Douglas, Arizona, Mexican authorities have obtained an arrest warrant for the attorney and are seeking his extradition to Mexico.  The convictions stem from illegal adoptions of Mexican children by US families.  Last year Mexican officials began investigating the attorney, Mario Reyes Bur-gueno, which prompted an investigation by US authorities.

This summer the two women involved pled guilty to introducing prospective parents to Reyes, and Reyes has recently pled guilty to bringing the children into the US without proper paperwork.  He faces a sentence in the US of up to three years and five months.  If extradited to Mexico and convicted there, he will face up to 12 years in prison for trafficking in children and illegally detaining a minor. 

The US investigation is ongoing, focusing now on as many as 15 more adoptions that may have been illegal.  There are no accusations that any of the adopted children were stolen from their parents.

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