Would this be typical or atypical for Mexico, then? (trading a baby for a car)

[Manedwolf]

Disgusting. I sincerely hope this sort of thing isn't the status quo there. And yes, these were all illegals.

Three people have been arrested in the US state of Colorado on charges of swapping a five-month-old boy for a downpayment on a used car and cash.

Nicole Uribe, 23, is accused of trading the baby to Jose-Juan Lerma, 47, and his wife, Irene, 27, in exchange for the downpayment on a Dodge Intrepid and an unspecified amount of cash.

All were arrested on suspicion of trafficking in children and were being held at the Pueblo jail under $US50,000 ($A63,580) bail each.

The baby was placed in a foster home, Police Sergeant Brett Wilson said. Wilson said he could not speculate on the motives for the alleged deal.

He said police found the child and arrested Uribe within hours of getting a tip yesterday. The Lermas were arrested today.

Wilson said all three were Mexican nationals and federal officials had been asked to investigate their immigration status.

[Jamisjockey]

Yes.  My wife has an Aunt (now deceased....a whole nother story) who adopted a baby from Mexico.  I say adopted, but what I really mean is bought.  They paid a woman who was having the baby, and signed the husband's name to the birth cert.  I think they might have even smuggled her in to have the baby.....

[El Tejon]

It happens down there, I do not know how frequently.  Had a client who sold her baby in Texas for much more than $1,500.

[Sindawe]

Freaking illegal aliens, family values my foot. : puke :

Link to story: http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=65538

[RocketMan]

Don't be so hard on these good folks.  They are just performing the hard, back-breaking baby trafficing jobs that Americans won't do.

[BobR]

It isn't just illegals. It happens anywhere there are people so poor they see no other way out. Or in the case of where I work, when people would rather feed their addictions than a child.

We had a baby that was "bought" for 20 dollars and a case of beer. Luckily an Aunt had the baby and when the new "parents" arrived to claim little "johnny", she called the police.

bob

[Lee]

Speaking as someone who partially went through the LEGAL adoption process about ten years ago, this may be about as moral as it gets.  The only difference, is that the parents got paid a pittance instead of an adoption agency which would have gotten 3-5 times that amount, while the parents would get nothing.   We got lucky with in-vitro.  Infant adoption is a bigger racket than drugs.

[Car Knocker]

Interestingly enough, a Google search reveals baby-selling seems to occur throughout the world, from China to Hungary to England to the U.S., and seems to transend racial, ethnic and religious groups.  Babies being sold are, at times, the children of prostitutes, often women who are sold into sexual slavery, other babies are the victims of poverty.  Some are the victims of theft. Poverty seems to be a dominant factor somewhere in the cycle.