In Santa Cruz, Tenerife, police have arrested six people, one man and five women, who were offering €10,000 to pregnant, homeless women in exchange for their babies.
The police had been monitoring the detainees for some time after discovering the existence of a person in charge of finding pregnant women, in particular homeless pregnant women, who were prepared to give up their babies in exchange for money.
The babies, once born, would be sold on to childless couples.
Police then focussed their attention on one of the pregnant women and members of the gang who had numerous meeting with a wealthy Tenerife couple to negotiate the handover of the baby once it had been delivered.
They then discovered that the pregnant woman, a drug addict, was in the Hospital Universitario de Canarias to give birth and she was arrested shortly after the delivery in order to prevent the sale of the baby.
Also detained were the two people who were going to buy the baby and a drug dealer who supplied heroin to the pregnant woman while she was in hospital.
The detainees have been charged with crimes against family relationships and altering the paternity of a minor.