Utah authorities say they believe an elected official from Arizona smuggled at least 40 pregnant women from the Marshall Islands into the Beehive State as part of an illegal adoption scheme.
And some of those women, they say, are still in Utah and are days away from giving birth here. Pregnant women were also found in a home in Arizona that was raided as Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen was arrested Tuesday.
“The commercialism of children is illegal,” Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said at a Wednesday news conference. “And the commoditization of children is simply evil.