Eleven Irish Couples Caught Up in Illegal Adoption Scandal in Mexico UPDATED

By on 1-15-2012 in International Adoption, Ireland, Mexico, Trafficking

Eleven Irish Couples Caught Up in Illegal Adoption Scandal in Mexico UPDATED

Investigators say four women are being held in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara in connection with an apparent child-trafficking ring that aimed to supply babies to childless Irish couples.

The Jalisco state prosecutor’s office says a 21-year-old woman has been arrested after a relative reported that she was “renting out” one of her children.

The woman said she had been paid to give the child to a group of three women who needed baby pictures for legitimate advertising purposes.

Investigators found the other three women were taking the child and several others to a hotel where Irish couples believed they were going to adopt them.

Officials are investigating whether the Irish couples and Mexican mothers were tricked.”
4 women held in Mexican child-trafficking case [Sacramento Bee 1/14/12 by Associated Press]

“A number of Irish men and women are being questioned by Mexican authorities in relation to an apparent child-trafficking ring.”

“The group of eleven Irish couples are currently answering police questions in the western city of Guadalajara.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told TheJournal.ie that the Irish embassy in Mexico is aware of the reports and is in contact with a representative from the group, as well as the group’s lawyer.

The Embassy has requested details surrounding the circumstances of this case from Mexican authorities.”

“Earlier this week, the Adoption Authority of Ireland advised prospective adoptive parents not to enter into any private arrangements with individuals or agencies in order to adopt in Mexico.”

Irish couples caught up in Mexican adoption scam
[The Journal 1/15/12]

“State prosecutors are now interviewing the Irish couples after four Mexican women were arrested and nine babies taken into care, seven of whom were already with Irish adoptive parents.

Local state attorney Tomas Coronado told newspapers that investigators will now interview the eleven Irish couples who may have been duped by the gang into believing that their activities were legal.

Officials at the Irish embassy are in touch with the couples who traveled to Mexico as a group.”

“A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said: “Our Embassy in Mexico is aware of the reports and is in contact with a representative from the group and with a lawyer representing the group.”

“Earlier this month, the Adoption Authority of Ireland warned prospective parents going to Mexico not to enter into any private arrangements with agencies or individuals there.

The Irish authority is in talks with their Mexican counterparts to establish formal regulated adoption procedures between the two countries.”

Irish couples caught up in Mexican babies-for-sale adoption scam
[Irish Central 1/15/12 by Cathal Dervan]

“Reports in Mexico said seven babies who were said to be victims of an illegal adoption scheme were taken away from the couples after the arrest of three locals accused of buying them off their mothers and handing them over to childless foreigners.

State attorney, Tomas Coronado, said: “There’ll be a full investigation into this matter and we will prosecute whoever’s committed these illegal acts. We have identified 11 Irish couples and are about to take statements from them.

“Some of them had the babies we’ve rescued with them, because they were told that living with them was part of the process they needed to go through for adoption.”

“We’ve rescued nine babies in total, boys and girls. Two were removed from one of the women we arrested and another seven from the custody of foreign couples. They’re now in state care. One is two; the rest are between two and eight months.”

The state prosecutor’s office said a 21-year-old woman was arrested after a relative reported that she was “renting out” one of her children. The woman said she had been paid to give the child to a group of three women who needed baby pictures for legitimate advertising purposes.

Investigators found the other three women were taking the child and several others to a hotel where Irish couples believed they were going to adopt them. The Mexican women, all aged in their early 30s, were subsequently arrested on suspicion of belonging to a child-trafficking gang.

They are also suspected of buying babies off cash-strapped mums-to-be found through ads in local newspapers. They would then hand them over to couples who travelled to Mexico to adopt.

The Irish couples were reportedly given the babies at a hotel in Guadalajara and sent to the nearby town of Ajijic, a popular retirement destination for Canadian and American expats, to spend a fortnight with them while the papers were processed.

Officials have not ruled out further arrests.

No formal accusations have been laid against the Irish couples caught up in the scam.

Investigators say they want to determine if they were duped into thinking they were taking part in a lawful adoption process.”

Irish couples to be quizzed over illegal adoptions
[The Sunday Independent 1/15/12 by Gerard Couzens]

“The Irish couples, all of whom remained unnamed yesterday, were shocked and heartbroken to be told of the scam and to have to return the infants.

‘Some of them had the babies we’ve rescued with them because they were told that living with them was part of the process they needed to go through to adopt these youngsters,’ State Attorney Tomas Coronado Olmos said. ”

” Officials are thought to have uncovered the scam after arresting a 21-year-old Mexican woman in the town of Zapopan, about 10km northeast of Guadalajara, as she allegedly tried to sell one of her children for €1,000. The woman’s sister-in-law is thought to have reported her to the authorities.”

” The processing was done in the neighbouring state of Colima. It is not clear whether suspected gang members intended faking documents or had corrupt local officials in their pay.

The birth mothers are said to have been paid €70 a week plus medical expenses while they were pregnant.

One local paper reported that after the mothers gave birth, the child-trafficking suspects got them to sign a contract permitting them to ‘hire’ their babies for €30 a day over a fortnight for use in photoshoots for publicity contracts.

Instead, the babies were handed over to the foreign couples and the birth mothers were given a copy of the contract, which they used to justify their babies’ absence to friends and neighbours. Mexican authorities said the Guadalajara-based firm Lopez & Lopez Associates was involved in drawing up those contracts. It is not clear whether the mothers knew their babies would be given up permanently or whether they expected them back after the fortnight.

Mexican lawyer Carlos Lopez has been arranging private adoptions in Mexico for Irish couples for at least seven years. He has been pictured in albums with other families who travelled from Ireland to adopt and is listed on various adoption websites. When the Irish Mail on Sunday called a number for his office, the number did not exist.”

” Investigators believe the prospective new parents were sent to Ajijic so they could blend in with the thousands of foreigners who have made the popular holiday town, on the shores of Lake Chapala, their home.

Irish couples have been travelling to the resort town for years, mainly staying in the gated communities of La Floresta and El Parque. One woman, who has helped to arranged accommodation for Irish families in the past, said they stay anywhere from three to eight months to comply with Mexican government guidelines on adoption.

‘The women stay and the husbands often go back to Ireland to work,’ she said.”

“As the arrests and investigation unfolded during the past few days, Ireland’s Adoption Authority issued a release on Thursday about intercountry adoptions involving Mexico. The Mexican authorities stated that all documentation must be sent by the ‘Adoption Authority of Ireland, or a body accredited by the AAI, to the Federal Central Authority’ – as per the Mexican notice on the Hague Convention website.

The release also pointed out that Irish visa applicants must clearly state the actual purpose of their visit to Mexico and prospective adoptive parents need to obtain an adoption visa.

‘While some individual States within the Federal United States of Mexico may allow for private domestic adoptions outside public entities, there is no provision for private adoptions in the context of intercountry adoption,’ the release said.

‘No children under five years of age should be proposed for intercountry adoption, the only exceptions being children with special needs or sibling groups.

‘On the basis of the foregoing, prospective adoptive parents should not enter into any private arrangements with private individuals or private agencies.’

Previous adoptions advertised by Lopez – resulting in adoptions by Irish couples – had been described as ‘private’.”

” Ajijic hotel owner Steve Cross, originally from Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, says he has been in regular contact over the years with adoptive parents who have travelled to the area from Ireland.

‘This ran very smoothly until about eight months ago,’ he said. ‘One of the problems was that a social worker in Guadalajara – about 45 minutes from here – was telling the birth mothers just to sign up for the adoption process because the Irish couple would pay all their medical bills but then you could change your mind at the end.’

He said he hadn’t been aware of the current scam involving the 11 couples but he did know of continuing problems and changes within the adoptive process.

‘I know there’s one couple here at the minute who said they were given the all-clear to adopt – and then when they got to Mexico, the first email they opened was: “Don’t go to Mexico any more; it’s closed to adoptions.”’

Claire McGettrick of the Adoption Rights Alliance said: ‘We have always urged caution with inter-country adoption. However, unwittingly couples become part of such scams. We strongly urge child sponsorship programmes rather than adoption.

‘Intercountry adoption is really seen as a last resort after all other avenues have been explored.

‘There is a lot of money involved and this can lead to corruption.

‘If it is for the sake of the children, couples should look into fostering. There are so many kids in need of loving foster homes.

‘We come across this kind of thing regularly. Guatemala, for example, is riddled with corruption.

‘People need to take a stand but we have a long way to go.

‘This was a near miss for the children and families involved.’ “”

ELEVEN Irish families quizzed in Mexico over adoption ‘racket’
[Daily Mail 1/15/12 by Sheila Flynn and Gerard Couzens]

Carlos Lopez is mentioned as the attorney in the Daily Mail article. He has been around for years. His law firm Lopez & Lopez, Attorneys at Law has an ad on Adoption.com from August 3, 2001 that still is available to view. It states

“Lopez and Lopez, Attorneys at Law, Presents: “Adopting Privately From Mexico”
Our Law practice is exclusively devoted to Adoptions in Mexico. We have handled over 250 adoptions for Couples of New York area, during the past 20 years. Because of our commitment to pre-natal care, children adopted through our practice are normally in perfect health, and usually substantially healthier than children who are placed through orphanages in Eastern Europe, Asia or Guatemala. Each adoption must pass the most stringent ethical, moral and legal tests. We work toward protecting the rights of the baby, birthmother and adoptive parents during the adoption process. We seek success in every case by ensuring that all parties are fully informed of their rights. Throughout the adoption process, each of the parties needs for confidentiality and their privacy must be respected. You benefit directly from our years of advertising, and assist you through out the process. In order to fully comply with U.S. Immigration Law; in Mexico we only accept to work with single birthmothers that are incapable to provide for the child’s support, according to their local standards. In 100% of the adoptions we handle, the birthmother calls us for a consultation. We then interview the birthmother, provide all procedural information about the adoption process and gather her historical data. Most families decide on adopting from Mexico after careful consideration of all their alternatives. We believe that our fees are highly competitive with all other alternatives. We are also much closer to the United States than most other countries and have an outstanding track record in delivering healthy children. Many of the couples we have assisted through the adoption process have come to us when they were ready to adopt again. We are delighted and proud that so many happy families have come together with our assistance. Let Us Hear From You Sufficient alternatives exist that few people who really want to be parents are precluded from an adoption. Don’t let fear and lack of information limit or inhibit you. You have nothing to lose by asking questions. We can help. Contact us for a free consultation. Carlos Lopez, International Adoptions Coordinator Lopez & Lopez Asocs.Av. Eulogio Parra #2934-2 Colonia Providencia Guadalajara, Jalisco, C.P. 44630 M e x i c o Phone and Fax No from the US: 011-523-642-2585 e-mail: calova@mail.udg.mx

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He is also featured in a CBS three-part series from 2003 about reunion of identical twins separated at adoption when they were weeks old (and whose adoptions were facilitated by Lopez) and finding their mother. One AP, friends with Lopez, kept the adoptee in the dark about having a twin for 20 years.

The series is still accessible via the web at

Twist Of Fate [CBS News 11/4/03 by Rebecca Leung]

Part II: The Reunion
[CBS News 11/4/03 by Rebecca Leung]

Part III: Search For Their Mother
[CBS News 11/4/03 by Rebecca Leung]

Excerpts From Part III,

“When Norma [the birthmother] heard the twin’s story, she told the girls she was forced to give them up for adoption. ”

“Adriana asks Norma why she and Tamara were separated. At the time, Norma says she was pregnant and unmarried when she agreed to the adoption. She says she changed her mind, but claims lawyer Carlos Lopez threatened her: “He told me I had to do what I had signed on the paper or I, and all my family, were going to be in jail.”

Lopez denies that this ever happened. ”

“When Norma signed the adoption papers, she agreed to give up just one baby. She didn’t know she was having twins. After she gave birth, she claims Lopez convinced her it would be better for the twins to grow up together. She said she believed that her daughters were together, in San Francisco with a Catholic family.

But Lopez showed us documents signed by Norma that he says proves she knew her daughters were going to be separated.

“This is a big lie. A big lie. This paper is fake. I don’t know how much money you pay for this paper,” says Norma. “The reason I gave you my other baby was so that they would be together.”

“I told you with another good family. I told you it was too late for the same family. I told you,” says Lopez.

“As a mother, I would want to see them together. But for two weeks, where was Tamara,” asks Diane, who says she didn’t expect the reunion to end up like this. “I wanted answers. I wanted to know why did she have a good reason to separate them? And it’s not. It just seems like a lot of lies going around.”

But Judy’s not so sure: “When my husband and I went down to adopt, we thought everything was ethical, and I want to think that it was, and I don’t know that it was.”

As for Norma, she’s just happy her girls are alive: “Perhaps to them, I’m not their mother. But to me, they are my daughters.” ”

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Carlos Lopez has been operating since at least the early 1980s. Same scam, different receiving country. Would Hague or other rules have stopped these adoptions if the sister-in-law of  one of the mothers who was coerced hadn’t reported this to the police? The 2003 article suggests falsified papers.

Update: “Mexican investigators detained three more women in the city of Guadalajara in connection with an apparent child-trafficking ring that aimed to supply babies to Irish couples, authorities said Monday.

Authorities also took a tenth child, a 9-month old boy, into custody, the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

It said the three women were detained at a ranch in Tonala, a suburb of Guadalajara, while taking care of the baby boy. They told authorities they had been hired as nannies to take care of children in the process of being adopted, prosecutors said.

Police have raided several ranches to look for more evidence in the case, investigators said.

Authorities last week detained four women and seized nine children, all of them between two months and two years of age.

Prosecutors first opened the investigation last week following the arrest of a 21-year-old woman who was accused by her sister-in-law of trying to sell one of her children and of “renting” the other one.

The woman led authorities to three other women, all in their early 30s, who took part in the “renting” of the babies, and seized nine children, including the 21-year-old woman’s two kids. The other seven were seized from the Irish couples.

The first woman arrested claimed she had signed a contract with a law firm to allow her child to be photographed in different places in Jalisco state for advertising purposes. She told investigators that her baby was taken for 15 days and that she received $500 pesos ($36 dollars) per day as payment, prosecutors said.

The other three women reportedly took the child and several others to a hotel in Guadalajara where they met with the Irish couples who believed they were going to adopt them. The couples then took the children to the nearby town of Ajijic, a lakeside resort popular with American and Canadian retirees, where they were staying while the adoptions were finished.

Officials are investigating whether the Irish couples and Mexican mothers were being tricked by the smuggling ring.

The Irish Embassy in Mexico said in a statement that it’s providing consular advice to the couples involved and that the Irish council had traveled to Guadalajara to meet with the Irish citizens and local Mexican authorities.

Police are also looking for at least two lawyers with the Guadalajara law firm Lopez Lopez y Asociados who were allegedly processing the adoptions in neighboring Colima state. The lawyers purportedly advertised in local newspaper for expectant mothers who wanted to give their children up for adoption.

Investigator said the foreign couples had been giving $1,200 pesos ($188 dollars) per week to the mothers since pregnancy, and paying for their medical attention.”

3 more women held in Mexico child-trafficking case
[Associated Press 1/17/12 by Olga R. Rodriguez]

“Three more suspects have been taken into custody in relation to an alleged child-trafficking ring which aimed to pass babies to Irish families for adoptions.

So far, Mexican authorities have detained six women and 10 children. The children, aged between two months and two years, are being held in west Mexico.”

“On Sunday, it was reported that the 11 Irish couples believed to be involved in this scam have travelled to Guadalajara, as a group, to aid with the investigation.

Lino Gonzalez, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office in Guadalajara city, Jalisco state, told AFP “Three people were provisionally detained on Friday and three others were taken in on Monday.”

On Friday the first three suspects were found in a house in Zapopan, near Guadalajara. There were nine babies in the house.”
Desperate Irish citizens and Mexican mothers conned by smuggling ring
[Irish Central 1/18/12 by Bernie Malone]

Update 2: “Four of the 10 children seized in western Mexico as part of a child-trafficking investigation involving Irish couples show signs of sexual abuse, a Mexican official said Wednesday.
Jalisco state Attorney General Tomas Coronado said the children were examined by doctors but offered no other details.

“There are four children who show signs of having been abused (sexually), perhaps not in a violent way but there are signs (of abuse),” Coronado told reporters. He said he couldn’t elaborate because of the ongoing investigation and didn’t say when the alleged abuse would have taken place.

He said at least 11 Irish couples are involved in the case.

Fifteen Irish citizens have already talked to authorities, said Lino Gonzalez, a spokesman for Jalisco state prosecutors.

The foreign couples were giving 1,200 pesos, or $188, per week to the mothers since pregnancy, and paying for their medical attention. Then later the Mexican mothers would also be paid for allowing the children to stay with the couples while the purported adoption process proceeded, Coronado said.

“The great majority of the people from Ireland who have given their testimony have said they thought it was part of the adoption protocol in the state to be paying and that obviously means (someone was making) a profit throughout the adoption process,” Coronado said.

Investigators are trying to determine if the Irish couples “acted in bad faith,” Coronado said, or were being tricked.

The Irish Embassy in Mexico said in a statement it’s providing consular advice to the couples involved.

About a dozen state police officers on Wednesday raided a two-story home in a middle class Guadalajara neighborhood that local media said belongs to the lawyers processing the adoptions. The lawyers apparently advertised in a local newspaper for expectant mothers who wanted to give their children up for adoption.

Prosecutors have said two attorneys who owned the law firm Lopez y Lopez Asociados are being sought in the case.

Coronado wouldn’t identify the lawyers but said they have ignored prosecutors’ requests to talk to investigators.

The apparent child-smuggling ring came to light last week when a woman told police that her sister-in-law was trying to sell one of her babies and “renting” the other one.

Investigators then detained the 21-year-old woman, who led authorities to three other women. Another three women who worked as nannies, the son of one of them and a taxi driver have also been detained, Coronado said.

Authorities seized the 21-year-old woman’s two children, seven children from the Irish couples, and one from the nannies. The children are between two months and two years of age.

Agents found that the group was taking the woman’s two children and others to a hotel in Guadalajara where they met with the Irish couples who believed they were going to adopt them. The couples then took the children to the nearby lakeside resort of Ajijic, where they were staying until the adoptions were finished, prosecutors said.

Roy Lahti, president of the condominium association of El Bosque gated community in Ajijic, said some of the couples had been staying there but that they had left.

Irish couples in the process of adopting Mexican children had been coming to the community of California-style homes and cobblestone streets for at least three years. They would stay between six and eight months and often the children lived with them, he said.

“They were really nice couples, always cordial,” Lahti said. “The community here is shocked.””

Mexico smuggling probe: 4 kids show sexual abuse
[Associated Press 1/18/12 by Olga R. Rodriguez]

Update 3: “At least 11 Irish couples are being quizzed by police, but none of these are suspected of abusing any children. 

The mothers of the 10 children were given 1,200 pesos (€70) a week since their pregnancy and foreign couples also paid for their medical care.

Another sum of money was supposed to be exchanged once the children had been born and were adopted by the Irish couples, Mr Coronado said.

“The great majority of the people from Ireland who have given their testimony have said they thought it was part of the adoption protocol in the state to be paying and that obviously means (someone was making) a profit throughout the adoption process,” he said.

Investigators are trying to verify if Irish couples knew that they were involved in an illegal child adoption scam or if they were tricked. The Irish embassy in Mexico confirmed that it was providing consular advice.

Lawyers who processed the adoptions are thought to have advertised in a local newspaper for expectant mothers looking to give up their children.

Police have not questioned the lawyers so far and while they have not been identified, it is understood that the owners of Lopez y Lopez Asociados are connected to the case.

Yesterday, police raided a two-storey home in Guadalajara that is thought to have belonged to the two lawyers involved in the controversy.

The alleged child trafficking ring was exposed last week when a woman contacted the authorities claiming her sister-in-law was trying to sell one of her children. The 21-year-old, who was accused of child trafficking, led investigators to three other women, all in their early 30s.

Nine children — the 21-year- old’s two children and seven children who were with Irish couples — were seized.

Another three women were detained this week. They had been hired as nannies to look after children in the process of being adopted, according to prosecutors. They were taking care of a baby boy, who was also seized by police.

The 10 children are all understood to be aged between two months and two years of age. A taxi driver was also detained as a result of the probe.

A group was taking children to a hotel in Guadalajara where they met Irish couples, according to prosecutors. The couples then took the children to the nearby resort of Ajijic, where they remained until the alleged adoption was completed.”

Children in trafficking probe had been abused
[Herald 1/19/12 by Adelina Campos]

This article adds that the son of one of the nannies also was detained. “Another three women who worked as nannies, the son of one of them and a taxi driver have also been detained, Coronado said.”

Mexico: Irish Couples Accused of Sexual Abuse In Alleged Smuggling Ring
[Fox News Latino 1/19/12]

Update 4: “ELEVEN Irish couples returned to Ireland this weekend after a nightmare week in Mexico, heartbroken and shaken by a disturbing ordeal.

Aged in their 30s and 40s, they were all childless and shared a common aspiration: to adopt a baby from the Latin American country.

Instead, they became caught up in an extraordinary investigation into illegal adoptions in a country that has spawned numerous baby-trafficking scandals.

The plight of these couples — some of whom spent days bonding with babies that they hoped to bring home to Ireland — is bad enough. Worse still is the alarming trade in babies in which they unwittingly became embroiled, with local reports that impoverished pregnant mothers were paid to offer up newborn children to prospective parents.

For any aspiring parent about to embark on the arduous and expensive process of adopting a baby from another country, theirs was a cautionary tale.

Geoffrey Shannon, the chairman of the Adoption Authority of Ireland, pointed out the seven advisory notices in 15 months, warning prospective adoptive parents not to enter into private arrangements in Mexico.

The country signed up to the Hague Convention, which allows for inter-country adoption between signatories such as Ireland.

According to an account given by their Mexican lawyer, Carlos Montoya, however, these Irish couples did everything by the book and paid thousands in fees.

“These couples were desperate to have children. All they wanted was the affection that goes with having a family of their own, so they handed over the money,” he told one newspaper yesterday.

The couples have not been identified, despite a list of names floating about in Mexico. But according to their lawyer, they had all the necessary papers required from the Irish authorities to adopt a baby from another country.

According to their lawyer, the couples alerted the adoption authorities to their intention to adopt in Mexico and trawled the internet for a legal adviser.

That led them to a US firm, which in turn referred them to a legal adviser based in Guadalajara, a city in western Mexico. The lawyer, Carlos Lopez, later claimed to the authorities that he had arranged adoptions for about 60 Irish couples over seven years.

With the adoptions to be finalised through the Mexican courts, the process seemed legitimate, if expensive, with couples paying upwards of $30,000 (€23,000).

Babies were pledged before they were born. Prospective parents were sometimes asked to pay for the pregnant mother’s medical expenses and when babies were born, they were asked for more money upfront and urged to fly to Mexico within 15 days.

The sums involved were in the thousands, according to the couple’s lawyer, Mr Montoya, who explained: “When they’d arrive here, they would be charged more money for expenses, about $4,000 extra.

“They would also have to pay the lawyers’ fees, which would be another $4,000. They had to pay $38 a day in nanny services for the children already born. And for the unborn children, they had to pay the mother’s hospital costs before she gave birth.”

On arrival in Mexico, the parents were urged to stay in a hotel in Guadalajara and then travel from there to Ajijic, a tourist resort on the coast. According to accounts in Mexico last week, the babies were delivered to the couples in their hotel rooms, to allow them to bond with them.

They believed that the babies were unwanted and had been left by their mothers in welfare centres for adoption.

However, the arrest of a 21-year-old mother almost a fortnight ago suggested a different scenario. She was reported to police by her sister-in-law for allegedly trying to sell her babies for adoption, sparking the investigation that unravelled a suspected illegal adoption racket, involving Ireland and Italy, which is thought to date back more than 20 years.

By Friday, police had detained seven women and two men and 10 babies had been placed in state care. Four of the babies showed signs of sexual abuse. Seven of the babies had been with Irish couples.

Carlos Lopez claimed that he had been duped.

On Thursday, 15 Irish men and women gave statements to the police in Mexico, after which they were urged to return to Ireland by their lawyer, Mr Montoya. It appears that the Mexican authorities believe the Irish couples are innocent. The state prosecutor reportedly said that the Irish had “done nothing illegal”.

There are lessons to be learnt from this salutary tale. The discovery of this alleged baby-trafficking ring could raise uncomfortable questions about the provenance of other Mexican babies procured for Irish couples for adoption.

The Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald, told the Sunday Independent: “Obviously, for any couple who have been caught up in this, it’s a nightmare scenario. Inter-country adoption can be fraught and this is why you have to have procedures.

“If a baby has been registered here and if the Adoption Authority has satisfied itself that everything has been done according to the procedures, then clearly one would expect that those are de facto legitimate adoptions.”

Heartbreak over failed adoptions in Mexico
[Independent 1/22/12 by Maeve Sheehan and Gerald Couzens]

“Since the case broke late last week, state law enforcement has rounded up seven women and two men, all Mexican nationals from the Guadalajara metro area, for their possible involvement in an international adoption racket that appears to have gone amok after smooth sailing for close to a decade. While so far none of these individuals has been brought up on formal charges, all have been detained as witnesses in the matter.

According to the latest press release from Jalisco’s Procuraduria General de Justicia (Attorney General, — PGJ), the authorities have located nine infants between two and nine months of age plus a two-year-old toddler who were presumably in the process of being adopted by the Irish couples. They have all been placed in protective custody by the state. It appears that seven of the babies were already under the care of their prospective adoptive parents when the investigation was launched.

The Guadalajara daily Milenio reported that 15 Irish nationals voluntarily appeared before state prosecutors this week to give statements regarding their knowledge of the adoptions now under suspicion. The PGJ has indicated that the foreign couples were probably unwitting players, duped by an unscrupulous lawyer who played on their desperate desires to enter parenthood.

Investigation unfolds

State investigators were first put on alert after Zapopan municipal police arrested Laura Faiola (sic) Carranza Talamantes, 21, whose sister-in-law accused her of trying to “rent” out or sell her two young children.

Digging further into the matter, the authorities were led to the other persons who are being held under suspicion of acting in some capacity as mediators between biological mothers and foreign adoption candidates or as temporary caregivers for the babies. They also discovered telling documents, such as a rental contract Carranza signed granting permission for one of her youngsters to be photographed for a publicity campaign in exchange for a 500 peso-per-day fee. Authorities now suspect the contract, bearing the letterhead of the law firm Lopez y Lopez Asociados, was utilized by some women as a cover to explain the sudden absence of their offspring, while in fact they had been given up for adoption.

Sources close to the case have revealed that a Guadalajara lawyer named Carlos Lopez has been arranging adoptions for Irish couples for at least the last seven years. It appears that the adoption procedures he handled were riddled with irregularities. For starters, authorities have discovered that the cases were being handled in the neighboring state of Colima, where legal oversight in such matters seems to be more lax than in Jalisco. In the normal scheme of things, adoptions are carried in the state of residence of the birth mother and her child.

It is believed that Lopez has gone into hiding as authorities attempt to locate his whereabouts and that of two Colima lawyers also named in the investigation.

According to the scenario spelled out by the PGJ, the Irish couples were sent to a Guadalajara hotel to pick up their babies and then guided to temporary housing at lakeside where they could easily blend in with the large expat community while awaiting finalization of the adoption process. The usual time frame ranged from three to 12 months.

Many lakesiders can attest to the fact that foreign couples going about with snazzy strollers or kangaroo packs with dark-skinned babies inside have become increasingly common sights in the area over recent years.

With the exception of Carranza, there are no signs that other biological mothers have been identified or located to date. It is not yet known to what degree they may have been willing partners or innocent parties in a baby-for-sale racket.

The PGJ has revealed other details of the adoption arrangements. For example, the adoptive parents were charged 1,200 pesos per week during the course of the birth mother’s pregnancy, plus the cost of medical attention, vitamins and medicines required for her prenatal care. The amount the couples paid for court costs or professional fees to lawyers has not been mentioned.

One odd twist in the case is the PGJ’s speculation that several of the infants may have suffered sexual abuse. There has been no implication that the adoptive parents were suspect.

In researching this story, the Reporter has been unable to make direct contact with any of the Irish couples who have sought or achieved adoptions in Jalisco for comment on the subject. One lakeside resident who was friendly with several of them has not yet responded to our queries.

Ajijic hotelier Steve Cross, an Irishman by birth, did talk with the British press about recent glitches in adoption procedures he learned about from Irish couples he had met in the village. He was quoted in the Daily Mail, saying, “This ran very smoothly until about eight months ago,” referring to a Guadalajara social worker who encouraged the birth mothers to agree to adoption “because the Irish couple would pay all their medical bills but then you could change your mind at the end.”

This newspaper did speak with one of Carlos Lopez’s former clients under conditions on anonymity. The person we’ll call “Q” became progressively disenchanted with the lawyer after prolonged dealings with him during an adoption deal that fell through at the last minute.

“He was a control freak who easily turned angry and verbally abusive whenever questioned on an aspect of the procedure,” Q stated. The lawyer’s insistence that Q and spouse avoid any contact with any government agency roused suspicions and they found it disconcerting that their business meetings with him were invariably held at a popular Guadalajara restaurant, never in his office.

Fortuitously, the couple eventually adopted a newborn through other Mexican channels and the family of three is now living happily ever after.”
Irish adoption racket blows open
[Guadalajarareporter.com 1/20/12 by Dale Hoyt Palfrey]

Update 5: “Life seemed to give Karla Zepeda a break when a woman came to her dusty neighborhood of cinderblock homes and dirt roads looking for babies to photograph in an anti-abortion ad campaign.

The woman asked to use the 15-year-old’s baby girl in a two-week photo shoot for $755, a small fortune for a teen mother who earns $180 a month at a sandwich stand and shares a small, one-story house with her disabled mother, stepfather, and three brothers.

But 9-month-old Camila wasn’t just posing for photographs.

Jalisco state investigators say the child was left for weeks at a time in the care of an Irish couple who had come to Ajijic, a town of cobblestone streets and gated communities 37 miles away, thinking they were adopting her.

Prosecutors say the baby was apparently part of an illegal adoption ring that ensnared destitute young Mexican women trying to earn more for their children and childless Irish couples desperate to become parents.

Camila and nine other children have been turned over to state officials who suspect they were being groomed for illegal adoptions. And authorities hint that far more children could be involved: Lead investigator Blanca Barron told reporters the ring may have been operating for 20 years, though she gave no details. Prosecutors also say four of the children show signs of sexual abuse, though they gave no details on how or by whom.

Nine people have been detained, including two suspected leaders of the ring, but no one has yet been charged.

At least 15 Irish citizens have been questioned, the Jalisco state attorney general’s office said, but officials have not released their names. Neighbors say most or all have returned to Ireland after spending weeks or months in Ajijic trying to meet requirements for adopting a child. None was detained.

For Karla Zepeda, the story began in August, when she was approached by Guadalupe Bosquez and agreed to lend her daughter for an anti-abortion advertising campaign, she told The Associated Press. Bosquez later returned with another woman, Silvia Soto, and gave her half the money as they picked the child up. She got the rest two weeks later when they brought Camila home.

“They showed me a poster that showed my girl with other babies and said ‘No To Abortion, Yes To Life,”‘ said Karla, a petite girl cleaning her house to loud norteno music. “I thought it was legal because everything seemed very normal.”

Before long, the message spread to her neighbors. Seven other women, most between the ages of 15 and 22, agreed to let their babies be part of the ad campaign. Some already had several children. Some are single mothers. One of them doesn’t know how to read or write. Five of them told they AP that they did not even have birth certificates for their babies when they came across Bosquez and Soto.

One said she needed money to pay for her child’s medical care, another to finish building an extra room on her house.

All deny agreeing to give their children up for adoption.

“We’re going through a nightmare,” said Fernanda Montes, an 18-year-old housewife who said she took part to pay a $670 hospital bill from the birth of her 3-month-old. “How could we have trusted someone so evil?”

The women say that Bosquez and Soto persuaded three of them to register their children as single mothers so they could participate in the anti-abortion campaign, even though they live with the children’s fathers.

Children’s rights activists say that also could have made it easier to release the child for adoption: only the mother’s signature would be needed.

The mothers were assured that the babies were being taken care of by several nannies and checked by doctors. The babies often returned home wearing new clothes.

Some of the mothers said they began having second thoughts. But when they declined to send their children back, they say, Bosquez and Soto insisted they would have to pay for the strollers, car seats, diaper bags and everything else they had bought for the babies.

Investigators say that Bosquez and Soto were taking the children to a hotel in Guadalajara, where they met with Irish couples who believed they were going to adopt them.

The plan began to unravel on Jan. 9, when local police detained 21-year-old Laura Carranza and accused her of trying to sell her 2-year-old daughter.

Investigators said Carranza denied that allegation, but acknowledged she was “renting” her 8-month-old son. She then led authorities to Bosquez and Soto.

Both are now being held on suspicion they ran the alleged anti-abortion ad campaign as a front for an illegal adoption ring.

It was not clear if they have attorneys and they have not yet been brought before a judge to say if they accept or reject the allegations.

Carranza is also being held, as is Karla’s mother, Cecilia Velazquez, who hasn’t worked since she lost both legs in a traffic accident in 2010. Karla says her mother’s only fault was agreeing to the ad campaign.

Seven of the mothers interviewed told the AP that the children had most recently been picked up by Bosquez and Soto between Dec. 27 and Dec. 30 for an alleged photo shoot. They returned the babies on Jan. 9 and 10, saying “there had been problems.” The mothers said they didn’t notice anything wrong with the babies or any signs of abuse.

Then state police investigators showed up at their homes and drove them and their children to the police department for questioning. The babies were taken from them and put into state protective custody. The women complained that only four of them have been allowed to see their babies since, and only once.

A statement from Jalisco state prosecutors’ said authorities seized Carranza’s two children and the other seven while they were with Irish couples. Prosecutors didn’t respond to requests by the AP to clarify the discrepancy.

Residents of Ajijic, a town on the shore of Lake Chapala favored by American and Canadian retirees, say Irish citizens looking to adopt Mexican children began appearing there at least four years ago.

Jalisco state prosecutors’ spokesman Lino Gonzalez wouldn’t confirm the Irish had left, but said none had been charged with a crime.

Even if they had adopted the children, Ireland might not have accepted them because the adoptions were handled privately, said Frances FitzGerald, Ireland’s minister for children.

“Obviously, for any couple caught up in this, it’s a nightmare scenario,” she said.

“What you can’t have in Mexico is people going to local agencies or individuals doing private adoptions because they come back, there is going to be a difficulty.”

Prosecutors say they have been trying without success to reach the attorneys who were handling the adoption paperwork in the neighboring state of Colima.

Custody release statements signed by all of the mothers carry the logo of Lopez y Lopez Asociados, a firm owned by Carlos Lopez Valenzuela and his son, Carlos Lopez Castellanos. Authorities raided the office last week.

The release statements were shown to the AP by a local advocate for missing and stolen children, Juan Manuel Estrada of Fundacion FIND, who said they had been leaked to him by a state official. He said Lopez Valenzuela had separately sent him a lengthy statement by email declaring that he too may have been duped in the case and denying wrongdoing.

Prosecutors wouldn’t confirm the authenticity of that statement, but it mirrors the stories of seven mothers who were interviewed by the AP.

According to the statement Lopez said he had handled adoptions in Colima state for 63 Irish couples since 2004. He said he first met Bosquez when she approached him in 2009 about giving her own unborn child up for adoption to an Irish couple, a process, he wrote, that was completed legally.

The statement said that Bosquez also introduced Lopez to a social worker who together brought him the current case involving Zepeda and the other women from Zapopan, apparently hoping he could match the children to adopting couples.

It says Lopez was told the mothers wanted only to deal with the two women, and he agreed. The young mothers confirmed they never met Lopez.

According to the statement, Lopez said that 12 Irish couples had been paying for what they thought was the medical care of pregnant women on the request of the social worker, though all the children were already born when their mothers first came across Bosquez and Soto.

Lopez didn’t respond to emailed interview requests from the AP.

According to the statement, Lopez said he follows the stringent adoption laws set by the Hague Adoption Convention, which Mexico has signed.

Unlike Guatemala or China, Mexico has not been a popular destination for foreigners looking to adopt, perhaps because the process, done by law, is complicated.

“The legal adoption process in Mexico is difficult, but cheating in Mexico is very easy,” Estrada said. ”

Mexico authorities unravel child trafficking ring
[Fox News 1/23/12 by Associated Press]

Update 6: “In total nine Mexicans (seven women and two men) have been detained, and 10 children aged between two months and two years were taken into protective custody in western Mexico. The arrests came after a 21-year-old was turned in by an enraged sister-in-law after she tried to sell one of her children and “rent” another, as part of what she claimed was an advertising contract in which she allowed the rented child to be photographed for $35 a day. Upon her arrest the woman is said to have led police to the ringleaders and certain at-risk children.

Nine of the babies and three suspects were found at a house in the town of Zapopan, near Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco. Three further suspects and one more child were found in nearby Tonala, and two males were later picked up. Authorities said the suspects allegedly paid the mothers $88 per week during their pregnancies, and covered medical bills.”

“After a lawyer’s office was raided Wednesday, documents seized outlined how children had been “legalized” by the ring, with some cases stretching back to 1990, Blanca Barron of the Jalisco State attorney general’s office told the AFP.

The lawyers involved are said to have run local newspaper ads seeking mothers-to-be who wished to give their children up. It is understood that birth certificates, adoption papers and receipts had been sent to the children’s natural mothers, and that children had also been sent to Italy by the ring. Ms. Barron added that suspects from the law firm remained at large.
“There’ll be a full investigation into this matter and we will prosecute whoever’s committed these illegal acts,” Jalisco State Attorney General Tomas Coronado said in a statement.”

Irish caught up in Mexican trafficking ring
[The Irish Emigrant Online 1/24/12 by Brian Fitzpatrick]

Update 7: “Eleven Irish couples caught up in an alleged adoption scam in Mexico have been left devastated by the affair, they said tonight.

While the lawyer at the centre of the baby trafficking plot remains on the run, the families who returned home last weekend have insisted they believed they were acting legally.

Offices belonging to the Lopez Y Lopez firm in Guadalajara have been raided and documents seized and six employees detained by police.

Carlos Lopez, who claims to have arranged the adoption of up to 60 children from Mexico to Ireland since 2004, is wanted over the apparent trafficking racket.

The 11 Irish couples, in their 30s and 40s and mainly from Dublin, are said to have followed official rules to the letter and only remained in the country after the affair broke more than a week ago to give statements to authorities.

Carlos Montoya, a lawyer from Guadalajara, western Mexico, acting for the couples, said they were carrying all relevant documentation needed to complete legal adoption in Mexico.

“Naturally all the families are devastated with the turn of events,” he said on their behalf.

“All the families believed they were involved in public, Hague-compliant, legal adoptions. All families had valid Declarations to Adopt from Mexico as issued by the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI).”
Mr Montoya added: “I can tell you this much: they are innocent. They tried to adopt children legally.

“They did not know what was going on, they had no suspicions of wrongdoing and they called the Irish embassy when police started asking questions.”

A US-based adoption agency is believed to have put the couples in contact with Lopez, who has claimed to have acted as a go-between for 20 years with families from around the world.
The scam involved mothers of babies being paid about 755 US dollars (€5750) for their youngsters to take part in photoshoots for a number of days.

Instead they were being groomed for trafficking in illegal adoption.

Prosecutors believe childless couples seeking a youngster from Mexico, who went through rigorous checks under the Hague Convention, were charged expenses to cover medical bills, lawyers’ rates, nanny services and expensive flat charges, up to 30,000 US dollars (€23,000). [I don’t think that sounds like a process that follows “official rules to the letter”]
Reports in Mexico have said that Irish couples were advised to stay in the coastal resort town of Ajijic and wait for the child to be brought and remain there for days or weeks to bond.

Since the scandal broke earlier this month when a Mexican mother was reportedly stopped from selling her baby, 10 youngsters have been placed in care.

The Irish couples were advised to return to Ireland amid fears they could face blackmail.

The AAI has refused to comment on Irish couples unwittingly involved in an apparent trafficking racket, saying it does not discuss individual cases.

The agency held board meetings for several hours today to discuss the controversy.

Mr Montoya, based in Jalisco, has received copies of files built up over three years by the couples to secure adoption and certified by the AAI.

He was asked by the Irish embassy in Mexico to assist the couples.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said the couples only remained in Mexico to give statements. No Irish people have been arrested.”

Couples devastated by adoption scam
[Irish Examiner 1/24/12]

Update 8: “A CLAIM by the Minister for Children that there is no evidence that previous adoptions in Mexico by Irish couples are unsafe has been challenged in the Dáil.

Frances Fitzgerald referred to the controversy in Mexico where 11 Irish couples had been questioned following the discovery of an international child-smuggling ring, after the arrest of three local women accused of buying children from their mothers.

During a Dáil debate on inter-country adoption, Ms Fitzgerald assured parents who had previously adopted from Mexico that the Adoption Authority of Ireland “has no evidence that previous adoptions are unsafe or are affected by the recent events in Mexico”.

Socialist Party TD Clare Daly questioned the statement and said that of 92 children adopted by Irish couples, 60 were arranged by a lawyer called Lopez, who was being sought by police in Mexico.

“How can the Irish Adoption Board say adoptions from Mexico are safe if the Mexican authorities are seeking an individual who has arranged two-thirds of those adoptions?” the Dublin North TD asked. The lawyer was being sought for “illegal practices in adoption involving 60 children adopted by Irish parents, yet the adoption board is on record as stating that all existing adoptions of Mexican children by Irish couples are safe. Both those scenarios cannot be correct.”

During the debate Ms Daly also criticised the media focus on the difficulties faced by up to 20 couples who desperately wanted to adopt from Vietnam, saying they had ignored the plight of 55,000 adopted adults in Ireland, “many of whom were illegally adopted in the State”. There was a “double standard” around adoption because in the past, “Ireland was a huge exporter of children, much to our shame”.
There was now a similar situation in other countries where “in many instances people in poor and difficult socioeconomic circumstances have been preyed upon”.

Sinn Féin spokesman on children Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin also highlighted the “shady motivation” of some adoption organisations overseas and warned of “baby businesses masquerading as adoptions organisations”.

“For many years poor children in Ireland were taken from their parents because others felt they ‘knew best’ and that there was a better class of parent elsewhere.

“It is not a mindset that should be applied or transferred from our past experience to any other jurisdiction today”. Ireland had to be “sensitive to the factors that lead parents in less well-off countries to place their children for adoption” and many would not give their children up if they could financially support them, he said.

Opening the debate, Ms Fitzgerald said events in Mexico served to reinforce the need to “ensure that all intercountry adoptions are properly regulated and effected in accordance with the provisions of the Hague Convention”, a set of “core standards designed to ensure good practice”. She said there was no provision for private adoptions in Mexico. The Adoption Authority registered 341 foreign adoptions in 2003, rising to a high of 397 in 2008, she added. The number had declined since, with about 200 inter-country adoptions in 2010 and 2011.”

Fitzgerald challenged on adoptions
[Irish Times 1/27/12 by Marie O’Halleran]

ANALYSIS: THE QUESTIONING of 11 Irish couples in connection with alleged illegal adoptions in Mexico has highlighted once again the pitfalls to be found in the world of intercountry adoptions.
Until late 2010, adopting a child from abroad into Ireland involved obtaining a declaration of suitability from the Adoption Board, following an assessment by the Health Service Executive. This could be lengthy and onerous, and delays in obtaining such a declaration were the subject of many complaints.

Having obtained their declaration, the couple concerned were then at the mercy of whatever adoption system prevailed in their country of choice, subject only to its adoption law being substantially the same as Irish adoption law. This often involved paying large sums of money to facilitators who arranged transport, accommodation, translations, legal services and medical checks, and, in some instances, “humanitarian aid” to the institutions providing the children.

The family’s next encounter with the Irish State was when they arrived back in Ireland and went to register the child in the Register of Foreign Adoptions.

Given that most of the countries sending children abroad for adoption are much poorer than the receiving countries, the possibilities for corruption are considerable and issues have been raised by the UN’s International Social Service, among others, about the nature of the consent to the adoption given by the natural mothers.

In 2010, a new Adoption Act was passed, repealing previous Adoption Acts and incorporating into Irish law The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions.

This means that the entire process of intercountry adoption, and not just the issuing of declarations of suitability, is now regulated and arranged between the central authorities of the sending and the receiving countries. In Ireland, the central authority is the Adoption Authority.

Children may only be adopted from countries that have signed up to The Hague convention, or with which Ireland has a bilateral agreement, and adopted children are matched to adopting families through the two central authorities, following guidelines laid down by the convention. It is no longer possible for prospective adoptive parents to contact an orphanage or an agency and arrange an adoption directly with them.

In addition to signing The Hague convention, countries from which Irish couples can adopt children must sign an administrative agreement spelling out how adoptions are effected. This includes the preparation of a report on the applicant in a form to be agreed in advance and a report on the child, also in a form to be agreed in advance.

The report on the child includes establishing that consent to the adoption on the part of the birth mother is freely given, following counselling; is not induced by payment; and has not been withdrawn following a period of reflection. Proofs of such consent are required, and the report must specify how and why the adoption is in the best interests of the child. The placement of the child for adoption can only be made when the consent of the Irish authority has been obtained.

This means that both central authorities have to sign off on the adoption and on the process. It is they, not any third party or the families themselves, who arrange the matching of the child with the adoptive parents, and this matching process has several stages.

While this process may appear bureaucratic and cause frustration to many adoptive parents, it is there for their protection and for that of the children, who must be at the centre of the adoption process, according to the chairman of the Adoption Authority, Geoffrey Shannon.

“We have been criticised for delays but that is due to the rigour of the process,” he told The Irish Times.

On the bright side, from the point of view of prospective adoptive parents, obtaining approval to adopt should take much less time now, following the accreditation by the Adoption Authority of three organisations to carry out the assessments previously conducted by the HSE.

However, The Irish Times understands that the HSE has not yet handed over to any of these organisations any applications for assessment. This is puzzling, given that the HSE has been severely criticised for not having sufficient social work resources to cater for the needs of the children in its care, and its assessment service requires social workers.

Meanwhile, as recent events in Mexico show, couples who do not go through the process provided for by the 2010 Adoption Act could face severe difficulties if they attempt to bring to Ireland children adopted abroad. If the children have not been adopted legally under the Act, they will not be registered in the Register of Foreign Adoptions and will have no legal status.

Indeed, they could face even further sanction. Under section 41 of the Act, a declaration of suitability can be withdrawn or amended if new information on the couple emerges. Involvement, even unwittingly, in an illegal adoption abroad could amount to such new information.”

2010 Act saves adoptive child and couple from pitfalls
[Irish Times 1/27/12 by Carol Coulter]

“These Irish couples had very personal relationships with these newborn babies,” Mexico-based reporter Franc Contreras tells host Lisa Mullins. “They thought, ‘This is going to be our new child.’”
Contreras says investigators cracked the case by tracking down money transfers from Ireland to Mexico. Authorities have arrested nine people in the scam. They’ve taken custody of 11 children, four of whom reportedly showed signs of sexual abuse. ”

Radio Transcript

Lisa Mullins: Authorities in Mexico say they’ve broken up an illegal international adoption scam. It involved destitute young Mexican young women. The women were mothers. They were told that their babies had been selected for an ad campaign, a photo shoot. Instead, the children were handed over to couples from Ireland, who had traveled to Mexico hoping to adopt. The Irish citizens say they thought they were involved in a legal process. Prosecutors say that so far they’ve taken custody of 11 babies involved in the scam. Reporter Franc Contreras is following this story in Mexico City. How did this scam work, first from the point of view of these women, these mothers, who had their babies at what point taken away from them?

Franc Contreras: Lisa, these are very young women in the western part of Mexico, a very conservative part of the country. And one of them was 18 years old. She had just had her baby and she was running into all sorts of money problems, and so she was approached by a woman who said that she would love to have photographs of this newborn baby, and to be able to use those photographs in an anti-abortion campaign. As I said, this is a very Catholic conservative part of the country. And this young mother, she was happy to help out with this anti-abortion campaign lending her child to be a model, as she thought it was going to happen, for these photographs; and also to receive the amount of around 10,000 pesos, which was a little over $750.

Mullins: So they turned over their children for this photo shoot and they were told that they would get their children back in two weeks. Is that correct?

Contreras: Yes, the children were taken from the homes. They were taken to a center in a place near Guadalajara, Mexico, Zapopan, Jalisco state, and there the children were given brand new clothing, toys, and the things that their mothers really couldn’t give them back home. And so it looked like the children were being treated very well.

Mullins: And by the way, how old were these children?

Contreras: The children in many cases were newborns. They were sometimes just weeks old, months old, in fact. So they were taken to this center. They were also receiving visits from these Irish families. And these Irish couples had very personal relationships with these newborn babies. They thought this is going to be our new child.

Mullins: So what interrupted the plan, what happened?

Contreras: Well, police got word this scam was unfolding and they were able to track down two of the women who were the ones that were involved directly with convincing these young mothers that they should participate in this so-called campaign for anti-abortion, which was actually a coverup for this illegal adoption ring. So police investigators, little by little they were able to gather enough information leading to the arrest of two women and at least seven others, a total of nine people we’re told now are in police detention.

Mullins: How did the investigators crack the case?

Contreras: Investigators were able to track down, for example, money transfers taking place from Ireland to bank accounts here in Mexico, and in this way they were able to show that there was actual falsification, a scam taking place in this way.

Mullins: How much money had the Irish citizens turned over?

Contreras: Police say that the Irish citizens were charged each about $6,000 for a baby, and if they were able to get final custody that amount was somewhere around $13,500 up to $14,000. It’s unclear whether or not any of those Irish couple actually paid that maximum amount, $14,000, but some of them, yes, they did pay thousands of dollars in transfers to bank accounts here in Mexico so they were able to have access to these children.

Mullins: Now, some of the babies though in the meantime were given back to their mothers after the two week period, and they were shown the posters where their babies’ photographs had appeared, these anti-abortion posters, so what was the plan on the part of the alleged scammers?

Contreras: For those people who are accused of running this illegal scam, Lisa, it’s really unclear whether or not they were actually ever planning to deliver young Mexican babies to these Irish couples. They were making that promise, but they were sort of playing both ends of the stick if you will. They were at the very same time promising the mothers that they were gonna get their children back, and so it’s unclear if they were ever planning to actually deliver these children in adoption.

Mullins: Reporter Franc Contreras in Mexico City. Thank you.

Contreras: Thank you, Lisa.”

Child-Trafficking Ring Preys on Young Mexican Women
[PRI’s The World 1/26/12 by Joyce Hackel]

The public Irish Adoption Forum, Rollercoaster.ie on January 24, 2012 indicates that it is a strong possibility that Adoption Alliance of Colorado was the US agency that referred to Lopez in Mexico as they had done so for many Irish couples in the past including indications that as recent as 2010 they referred to Lopez, when they were HAGUE ACCREDITED and JCICS members. Even if they are not the agency for these particular cases, ALL Mexico to Ireland adoptions from Lopez ARE under scrutiny at this time. We posted before the new year that Adoption Alliance closed . Their website is now offline but www.adoptall.org  on the Wayback machine shows that they had adoption preparation classes planned for January 2012. See the entire public forum thread at http://www.rollercoaster.ie/Discussions/tabid/119/ForumThread/141285684/Default.aspx

(You can also view the frustration of PAPs who are not getting clear information from the adoption authority on how to proceed in many countries.)

It is very important to note that a US agency referral to anyone like this is likely 100% LEGAL and NOT out of compliance with HAGUE rules. As we indicated in our recent public service announcement, the agency was NOT fulfulling placement, so there is no regulation. “One of the loopholes that is given as an example in the regulations themselves in Section 96.15 found here :

“Example 1. Identifying a child for adoption and arranging an adoption. Agency X identifies children eligible for adoption in the United States on a TV program in an effort to recruit prospective adoptive parent(s). A couple in a Convention country calls Agency X about one of the children. Agency X refers them to an agency or person in the United States who arranges intercountry adoptions. Agency X does not require accreditation, temporarily accreditation, approval or supervision because it is not both identifying and arranging the adoption. In contrast, Agency Y, located in the United States, provides information about children eligible for adoption in a Convention country on a website and then arranges for interested U.S. parents to adopt those children. Agency Y must be accredited, temporarily accredited, approved, or supervised because, in addition to identifying children eligible for adoption, it is also helping to arrange the adoption.”

We want to emphasize that referring potential adoptive parents to people that are KNOWN to have ethical issues is completely UNETHICAL AND IMMORAL. It is disgusting that this is not part of any regulation. This NEEDS to be part of the regulations. This is also why we want agencies BANNED when they engage in unethical activities in ANY country. IF this agency had been banned, then a major avenue for future trafficking would have been closed. As consumers, every AP needs to know how these dots connect and this case is a prime example of what happens with these weak Hague regulations.

Update 9: “THERE IS as yet no evidence that uncompleted adoptions from Mexico will be affected by recent events in the country in which 11 Irish couples have been questioned in connection with illegal adoptions, according to the chairman of the Adoption Authority.

Geoffrey Shannon told The Irish Times there was ongoing contact with Mexican authorities in relation to 18 adoptions currently in train from Mexico, but stressed this was routine under the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption, to which both Ireland and Mexico are signatories.

“There is co-operation in relation to a number of adoptions that are outstanding,” he said. “This is normal under the Hague process.”

Since the incorporation of the convention into Irish law, the entire process of intercountry adoption, and not just the issuing of declarations of suitability, is now regulated and arranged between the central authorities of the sending and the receiving countries. In Ireland the central authority is the Adoption Authority.

Mr Shannon said at its last meeting the authority had agreed to send a delegation to India to put in place an administration agreement on intercountry adoption with that country’s central authority.

India, also a Hague Convention state, is now one of the main countries internationally from which children are adopted.

“This will be significant in terms of the numbers available for adoption,” Mr Shannon said.

Meanwhile, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said the majority of adoptions prior to the 2010 Act had been from non-Hague countries, with 160 from Russia in 2007, a number which fell to 118 in 2010. There were 75 adoptions from Ethiopia that year, and this fell to 48 in 2011. There were 136 adoptions from Vietnam in 2009, falling to 10 in 2010 and none last year.

Vietnam has recently signed the convention, and it is expected that adoptions from that country can resume when an administration agreement is signed. Ms Fitzgerald and Mr Shannon recently visited Vietnam to progress such an agreement.

Ms Fitzgerald said it was hoped to have agreement with the central authority in Washington soon so adoptions from Florida could be agreed.”

Mexican adoptions not affected
[Irish Times 1/30/12 by Carol Coulter]

There is a discussion on Rollercoaster.ie Irish adoptive parent forum about the issue with Florida to Ireland adoptions. See http://www.rollercoaster.ie/Discussions/tabid/119/ForumThread/141281118/Default.aspx . A comment on January 12 indicates that the issues involve the following:

“1. The USA is Hague ; the federal government is discharging the appointment of the agency’s to the State’s itself. So any State that has appointed a agency for the purpose of dealing with hague-compliant adoptions could (in theory) be used

2. The agency in Florida that was mentioned did only get the license in July 2011 ; before that , technically , these where not hague adoptions as the agency was not appointed. The adoptions that did happen , where with declarations issued before 1st of November 2010

3. The issue why the AAI is looking into this is two-fold :

a) Link between monies paid to the birthmother from the pap’s/ap’s

b) proof that ICA was “last resort” and all other avenue’s closed to the birthmother

One can argue about the exact definitions (6 week rule , 6 month rule, offered to domestic adoptions or not) but that is how the AAI is seeing it right now and they want “clarification” ”

This is indicating that newborn placements (due to birthmother payments) were occurring from Florida to Ireland AFTER Hague went into effect for the US (April 1, 2008) but before the Hague went into effect for Ireland (November 1, 2010). It is almost impossible to believe that newborns can’t find an adoptive home in the US (the subsidiarity required in the Hague convention)! Keep in mind that if the country that the US is sending to isn’t party to the Hague convention, then  the US doesn’t have to follow Hague. They morally and ethically SHOULD but they are not required to.

So exactly WHAT IS this new DOS Agreement with Ireland?

COA has approved two Florida agencies for Hague outgoing cases: Adoption Advocates, Inc of Largo FL (not to be confused with the Washington-based agency of the same name) and Advocates for Children and Families of Miami, Florida. Adoption By Shepherd’s Care  had placed many children to Canada. Florida foster care organizations place many children to Canada. Family Support Services of North Florida is embroiled in a lawsuit about a case.

“MEXICAN police investigating a baby-trafficking ring believe that Irish families have been adopting the children, many of whom may have been abused, for more than 20 years. Cops have found evidence that children were being bought from poor Mexican mothers by an agency and then sold to unwitting Irish people since at least 1990.

Documents seized after a raid on the office of a lawyer, suspected by police of being tied to the racket, have found adoption certs and receipts from Irish people dating back over two decades. It is thought that several hundred Mexican children have been adopted by Irish couples over the last twenty years. ”

“Rogue

Because many of the tots came from poor and vulnerable families, police fear that abused children were routinely adopted to foreign families by a rogue Mexican adoption agency. According to a Mexican lawyer, Carlos Lopez, the 15 Irish people have been interviewed by police and returned to Ireland this week. The Irish couples who travelled to Mexico are believed not to have known that the children they planned to adopt were illegally acquired.

The state attorney general of Guadalajara, Tomas Cornando, said they were being investigated to determine if they “acted in bad faith” or were tricked by the rogue agency.

Defamation

He said: “The irregularities have come from the women who have been arrested and the office of Carlos Lopez. Two other lawyers are involved. The Irish have done nothing illegal.”

Carlos Lopez made has protested his innocence and denied any wrongdoing. He said: “The adoptive Irish couples are totally innocent of any crime. They are victims of defamation and of criminal acts perpetrated by others. I totally deny belonging to a criminal child trafficking group.”
Mexican kids sold to Irish ‘for 20 years’
[Sunday World 1/29/12]

Update 10: This scandal has had an effect on the scrutiny of  Mexico to US adoptions.

From ABC Adoptions AZ website

“Mexico Adoption program moving forward February 18, 2012

We have several families now in various stages of their adoption process, 15 in fact, with three more in the agency approval or home study stage. Ricardo is going to court for one family next week — this is the last step before getting the new birth certificate and making the trip to Mexico City! Wonderful!
There is a new Director at National DIF. Due to the issues that started with investigations of Irish adoptions from Jalisco, everyone is being extremely careful that the regulations are followed precisely. We expect there to be a national database of available children soon, with the states sending info on legally available children to the National DIF. This may help speed up the referral process. That is generally the longest step in the process.”

Update 11: “The lawyer linked to an alleged child trafficking ring in Mexico, which saw 11 Irish couples questioned, was jailed more than 20 years ago on suspicion of the same crime.

CNN Mexico reported Carlos Lopez Valenzuela was remanded in jail in 1990, after being arrested with a nurse and two other women in a hospital in Guadalajara for allegedly trying to buy children from two mothers preparing to go into labour.

According to the report, Mr Lopez was detained at the hospital before being remanded in custody. A staff member at the hospital is believed to have reported the lawyer and the three women to the police after becoming suspicious. Mr Lopez was remanded to a jail near the state capital Jalisco but it is unclear if he was convicted of any crime.

The 11 Irish couples were questioned in Mexico last month in relation to the latest apparent child-selling racket being linked to Mr Lopez.

Authorities have arrested four Mexican women and two men, and rescued 10 children in relation to the investigation.

Prosecutors believe the mothers, who were destitute and some of whom were illiterate, were duped into handing over their children for what they believed was an anti-abortion campaign advertised in the local press.

Prosecutors are hoping to arrest the lawyer shortly. ”

Child traffic ring lawyer was jailed in similar case
[Irish Examiner 2/20/12 by Conall O Fatharta]

Update 11: “Babies taken into custody during the dismantling of a Mexican child trafficking ring will be returned to their mothers.”

“Yuri Marquez, a lawyer working on the case, told journalists that an unspecified number of children kept in a nursery for four months were being returned to their mothers after undergoing DNA tests to confirm their identity, local media reported on Saturday.

Previously, investigators said 10 children aged between two months and two years had been rescued.

A probe has shown that the women, some of them illiterate and living in slums, had voluntarily given their children up for adoption in exchange for money.

However, the Foundation for Locating Missing Children maintains that lawyers duped the women into thinking their children were being photographed for an anti-abortion advertising campaign.

Investigators have said that the network, which apparently operated through small advertisements in the local press, paid 1,200 pesos ($A90) a week to mothers during their pregnancies and provided medical aid.”

Trafficked babies go back to mothers

[MSN New Zealand 6/3/12 by AAP]

“Attorney Yuri Marquez said Jalisco state authorities returned 10 of the 11 babies to their families last week. The children had been in the custody of the state’s protective services since January, when prosecutors opened an investigation after detaining a 21-year-old woman who was accused of “renting” one of her children.

Prosecutors are still running DNA tests on the remaining baby to confirm who her mother is, Marquez said.”

“Federal prosecutors took over the case, but would not comment Monday on the status of the charges. Marquez said seven people are still in federal custody, among them two women who the mothers said scoured a poor neighborhood in the outskirts of the western city of Guadalajara looking for babies.

The 21-year-old woman first detained in the case and the grandmother of another baby, who was accused of knowingly taking part in the scheme, were released from prison six weeks ago for lack of evidence, Marquez said.

Police are also looking for at least two lawyers with the Guadalajara law firm of Lopez Lopez y Asociados who were allegedly processing the adoptions in neighboring Colima state.

The mothers said they signed contracts with a law firm to allow their children to be photographed in different places in Jalisco state for advertising purposes. They told investigators that the babies were taken for up to 15 days at a time and that they received 500 pesos ($36) a day as payment.

People working for the lawyers would take the children to a hotel in Guadalajara where they met with Irish couples who believed they were going to adopt the babies. The couples then took the children to the town of Ajijic, a lakeside resort popular with American and Canadian retirees, where they were staying while the adoptions were finished.

A lead investigator told reporters in January the illegal adoption ring may have been operating for years. In this case, the Irish couples apparently paid the lawyers to search for a baby, to get the custody and to pay for the biological mother’s prenatal care. It’s not clear whether previous adoptions by Irish people with the same firm followed the pattern.

Cruz Guadalupe Gutierrez Moreno, 20, says she agreed to have her baby girl, who was born with weak lungs, take part in the alleged anti-abortion campaign so she could pay for the girl’s medical attention.

“I was filled with joy when they told us our nightmare was over,” Gutierrez said in a telephone interview about regaining custody. “She knows me and seems happy. The only problem now is that I don’t have money for her medicine.”

Babies in Trafficking Case Returned to Mothers

[ABC News 6/5/12 by Olga M. Rodriguez/Associated Press]

 

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