Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said that confirmation was sent by the directorate of the prosecutor's office for combating the mafia in the Italian city of Bari in response to an official request from the consular department of the Ukrainian embassy in Italy.
The detained Ukrainians - Nadezhda T. (born 1967), Oksana F. (born 1975), Elena K. (born 1941) and Mikhail M. (born 1973) are accused of “attempting to alter civil status records and selling people into slavery”. The Bari prosecutor's office intends to send a copy of Nadezhda T.'s passport to the consular department of the Ukrainian embassy in Rome. At the same time, Italian law enforcement does not have documents of the other members of the group.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Italy keeps this case under special control. As previously reported to the agency at the Ukrainian Embassy in Rome, citing the local press, it remains unknown whether there was an established system for selling children in Italy, or whether it was a single attempt by the suspects to sell one child of a Ukrainian prostitute.
As reported, an investigation has begun in the Italian region of Puglia into the activities of a gang of immigrants from Ukraine who traded newborns. The child was put up for auction even before birth: in the best case, the baby could be illegally adopted, in the worst case, it was to become material for the human organ market. They asked from 50,000 to 350,000 euros for each infant.
The police came across the child traffickers after receiving information in December last year about the sale of a newborn. As a result, three carabinieri infiltrated the gang of child traffickers. The police officers posed as wealthy people - two lawyers and an owner of yachts and vintage cars. As soon as the child was born and handed over to “clients”, the entire gang was arrested red-handed. The criminals are allegedly citizens of Ukraine - three women and one man. The investigation suggests that the gang primarily ensured the arrival in Italy of prostitutes from Eastern European countries, and also “worked” in the field of illegal adoption of children.