A newborn kidnapped on Thursday in the Brazilian city of Campo Grande was rescued alive early this Sunday in Pedro Juan Caballero, a Paraguayan town on the border with Brazil, in a joint operation by the police of both countries that ended with the arrest of a couple of Brazilian citizens. The baby girl is between 26 and 28 days old according to the various sources consulted.
The operation was carried out around 1:15 a.m., when agents from the Bipartite Command of Pedro Juan Caballero, with the support of the Paraguayan Anti-Kidnapping Group (DAS) and the Amambay Police Directorate, raided a house at the intersection of Alejo García and Coronel Martínez streets, in the Virgen de Caacupé neighborhood. There, they found the baby with the Brazilian couple, the Paraguayan National Police reported in a statement.
After the rescue, the minor was immediately transferred to the Pedro Juan Caballero Regional Hospital, where she remained under observation and underwent routine medical examinations before being handed over to the competent Brazilian authorities. According to media in Campo Grande, the girl did not have a civil registry or birth certificate at the time she was found.
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The detainees were identified by the Brazilian press as Weliton Aparecido Lopes dos Santos and Suzilaine da Graça Costa. According to the Civil Police of Mato Grosso do Sul, the woman was allegedly the one who lured the baby’s mother, a 17-year-old teenager, under false pretenses to a home in Campo Grande, where she took the newborn. The Paraguayan Police also reported that the arrested man was carrying a false identity and had a firm conviction in Brazil of eleven years and six months in prison for homicide.
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Paraguayan security forces patrol the border between Brazil and Paraguay during an anti-drug operation.
Both detainees were expelled this Sunday from Paraguayan territory “in accordance with the corresponding legal and migratory provisions,” according to the Paraguayan Police, to be placed at the disposal of the Brazilian Justice system.
The location of the minor was made possible thanks to the exchange of intelligence information between the police forces of Brazil and Paraguay, which allowed for tracking the couple’s movement from Campo Grande to Pedro Juan Caballero, about 313 kilometers away. Brazilian media specified that tracking telephone signals was key to locating the home where the baby was staying, and that cell phones, documents, and a vehicle were also seized at the scene, items that are now being analyzed to clarify if other people were involved in the plan.
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Police cooperation between Brazil and Paraguay in the turbulent border region of Amambay and Mato Grosso do Sul has intensified in recent years, particularly in the so-called Triple Frontier and surrounding areas, an area historically associated with smuggling and the trafficking of people and goods, where both countries maintain police cooperation agreements that facilitate joint operations like the one carried out this Sunday.
The case, which caused strong commotion in Campo Grande since the minor’s disappearance, will now be in the hands of the Brazilian justice system, which must determine the exact motive for the kidnapping and clarify whether the network involved in the act operated in an organized manner or if it was an isolated episode carried out by the detained couple.
