Babies bought in Mexico to stay with adoptive parents

Hermosillo - People who each paid up to $8 800 to adopt nine babies under an illegal scheme in northern Mexico will be allowed to keep the children, authorities said.

Authorities in the state of Sonora had detained eight people on Tuesday accused of obtaining the children from a corrupt official working in the child protection services of the prosecutor's office.

They were among 14 adoptive parents sought in connection with the case, which sparked national outrage. All eight were released after posting bail the same day.

But Sonora state chief prosecutor Carlos Navarro said they would all be able to keep the children, including three who have been taken to social services.

"The state prosecutor's office will drop legal action against the men and women who have given these children the love and affection that all children need," Navarro told a news conference late Wednesday.

"I think that these families have been punished enough already," he said.

Meanwhile, none of the biological mothers have come forward, an official in the prosecutor's office told AFP. They are believed to have given away their babies because they were poor or addicted to drugs.

Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Arzate, the deputy director of the child protection section of the prosecutor's office accused of asking couples for money to speed up the adoption process.

An arrest warrant was also issued against a doctor who signed fake birth documents in which the adoptive parents appeared as the biological parents.

Since 2011, Arzate used information on parents seeking to adopt and vulnerable pregnant women for his scheme, prosecutors said.

There are no documents showing any agreements between the adoptive parents and the pregnant women.