Police have arrested ringleader 43-year-old Hoàng Huy Quang (left) from Hà Nội’s Hoàng Mai district, and 29-year-old Vũ Thị Liễu and 32-year-old Phạm Thiên Thuấn (right), both from Ninh Giang district, the northern province of Hải Dương related to an illegal surrogacy business. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Hà Nội Police have commenced legal proceedings against three people on the charge of running a commercial surrogacy ring, local police said on Wednesday. 

The detainees are ringleader 43-year-old Hoàng Huy Quang from Hà Nội’s Hoàng Mai district, 29-year-old Vũ Thị Liễu and 32-year-old Phạm Thiên Thuấn, both from Ninh Giang District in the northern province of Hải Dương.

Investigations reveal that from April to August, the ring arranged six surrogacy cases, each costing from VNĐ450 million (US$19,350) to VNĐ550 million. 

Liễu used social networks to seek surrogate mothers, offering them from VNĐ200 million to VNĐ220 million. 

Earlier, the Investigation Police Agency under the Police Department of northern Quảng Ninh Province also launched criminal proceedings against a local woman for arranging surrogacy for commercial purposes. 

Twenty-eight-year-old Trần Thị Ba from Hạ Long city was arrested on August 7 in an apartment building in Cao Thắng ward where she lives with eight other women, three of whom are pregnant.
The police also detained Vũ Nga Linh, 31, residing in Cẩm Phả City, to investigate the illegal surrogacy ring. — VNS