Police rescue boy snatched by human trafficking gang

An eight-month-old boy who was snatched from his grandmother by a human trafficking gang and sold has been rescued and reunited with his parents.

Four members of the gang on motorbikes grabbed the boy from his grandmother in the street in Huidong, Guangdong province, at around 8 pm on Sept 12. The grandmother was so distraught by what had happened she later attempted to commit suicide.

Following the incident local police set up a special task force to find the child named Huang Yuxian. Investigations led the task force to central China's Henan province on Thursday where the boy had been taken.

He was rescued at 5 am on Saturday morning and four suspects were arrested, said Zhu Mingwei, the Guangdong police officer who led the special investigation squad.

Huang was reunited with his tearful parents at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport on Sunday afternoon.

"After a thorough medication examination, we found the boy had only light skin injuries," Zhu said.

Pan Hengxin, 30, is alleged to have left Guangzhou with the boy by train before selling him for 25,000 yuan ($3,962) to a local trafficker in Yunyang township in Nanyang, Henan province.

The trafficker then allegedly sold the boy on again for 58,000 yuan to a family in Xiangdi village in Luoyang, according to police sources.

According to official statistics, police in Guangdong have solved 2,026 cases involving the abduction and sale of children and women in the past decade, rescuing 2,197 children and 3,724 women in the process.

A special taskforce designed to crack down on human trafficking was launched nationwide in April 2009. In 2011, 3,195 human trafficking gangs were busted and 15,458 women and 8,660 children were rescued.