Ahmad 
Moroccan authorities arrested 30 people this week in Fez on multiple charges in a wide-ranging case involving extortion, threats, and trafficking in newborns.
“In co-ordination with the services of the General Directorate for Surveillance of the National Territory, police in Fez arrested 30 people, including 18 private security personnel, a doctor, two nurses, a group of health professionals and intermediaries, on suspicion of involvement in extortion, threats and manipulation of the process of benefiting from public medical services and trafficking in newborns,” MAP reported.
The agency quoted a security source as saying that “among the arrested persons are those suspected of involvement in mediation in the sale of newborn babies in collusion with single mothers, in exchange for money for families wishing to sponsor neglected children, while others are suspected of involvement in extorting patients and their families in exchange for appointments for examination, diagnosis or visitation, as well as mediation in performing abortions illegally and issuing medical certificates that include false data.”