Bulgarian police detain BBC's child trafficking suspect

A suspected child trafficker shown in a BBC television report been arrested by Bulgarian police in the Black Sea city of Varna.

Hasan Redzheb Hasan, 47, was arrested yesterday, only few hours after police had received video that pictured him trying to sell babies, Kalina Pencheva, spokeswoman of the Varna police directorate, told the Associated Press.

Hasan was taped by BBC journalists posing as British customers while offering to sell them children for €60,000.

Yesterday the BBC aired the documentary, which showed Hasan promising to transfer the babies to London for an additional payment.

Police said that Hasan, whose wife lives in Scotland, was known also by the name Harry Alexiev Hristov.

In the documentary, Hasan said he had previously smuggled children to Germany and Norway and boasted of trafficking prostitutes from Bulgaria to Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland.

Police launched an investigation into the case and said they were looking for other members of the trafficking ring.