Cop arrested for selling two-year-old girl

BUENOS AIRES – An Argentine police officer was arrested for selling a two-year-old girl, a police source said Thursday.

The child was purchased for some 3,000 pesos ($370) and the policeman who sold the girl “is in custody,” said the source from Argentina’s central Santa Fe province regional unit, speaking on condition of anonymity.

On Monday, a couple went to a police station in the provincial capital of Santa Fe, claiming their three children had been left in the care of their grandmother and never came home.

They also mentioned the police officer as a possible suspect.

A search at the officer’s home turned up two of the three children, aged seven and 10, being cared for by the officer’s wife.

Investigators found the two-year-old in the house of another couple, which admitted to having purchased the child from the officer.

Ironically, the transaction reportedly took place in front of the Basilica of Guadalupe, a location of profound religious significance for the people of Santa Fe.

A court ordered that the children remain in the care of the authorities.