By IANS,
Beijing : A total of 608 suspects have been arrested and 178 children rescued after two “seriously harmful” child trafficking gangs were busted in China, the government said.
The ministry of public security said police launched an operation Nov 30 against the gangs in 10 regions, Xinhua reported.
Police in Sichuan province found out that a group sold 26 children to other regions, while police in Fujian found that children were being sold to the province by a criminal group whose trafficking businesses expanded to multiple regions.
The two cases drew the attention of the ministry, with vice minister Zhang Xinfeng acting as commander-in-chief of a special investigation team.
Around 5,000 police officers in the 10 regions launched a joint operation Nov 30 and arrested the suspects.
The ministry said all rescued children have been put under the care of female police officers, and arrangements are being made for them in nursing homes before finding their parents.
Official figures show that police across the country have broken 7,025 human trafficking groups since a special campaign started in April 2009, with 18,518 children and 34,813 women rescued.