Spanish police have arrested a woman suspected of selling at least four of her own children, along with five other people, in a joint operation against the trafficking of minors in the southwest of the country.
The Policía Nacional and the Guardia Civil carried out simultaneous raids on November 4, 2026 in Montijo, a town near Badajoz in the western region of Extremadura, in the city of Badajoz itself and in Linares, in the Andalusian province of Jaén.
The main suspect, a Spanish national living in Montijo, was detained alongside a man who was with her at the time, according to Spanish media reports.
Police sources told the news agency Europa Press that the woman had “dedicated herself to selling her own children” and that the six were being held, for the time being, on suspicion of the sale of minors.
According to early details of the investigation reported by El Mundo and other outlets, the woman gave birth at her home so that the births would not appear in the civil register, and then handed the babies to other families in exchange for money. The sums involved were allegedly used to fund her drug consumption.
Investigators have ruled out the possibility of a network kidnapping children for sale, El Caso reported, and believe all of the babies involved were the detained woman’s own.
The exact role of the other five detainees has not been made public. Reports in the Spanish press suggested they could be intermediaries or the families who took in the children, and that the case remains under judicial secrecy while their involvement is established.
Searches were carried out at the woman’s home in Montijo, at a property in the La Luneta district of Badajoz and at a third address in Linares. Some of the children had been traced to those locations, according to El Caso.
The Policía Nacional’s Family and Women’s Support Unit (UFAM), which specialises in the protection of minors, led the investigation together with the Guardia Civil’s judicial police. Officers have already recovered several of the children.
The Spanish Government’s delegate in Extremadura, María Teresa Macías, confirmed that six people had been arrested and that the investigation remained open. She said she could only comment on the part of the case handled by the security forces, as the judicial proceedings had to be respected.
Further arrests have not been ruled out.
Under Spain’s Penal Code, handing over a child to another person in return for financial compensation, in a way that bypasses legal adoption or fostering procedures, carries a prison sentence of between one and five years. Those who receive the child, and any intermediaries, face the same penalty.
