MOSCOW, November 27 (RIA Novosti) - Two doctors have been detained in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on suspicion of trading in children, the Nira Aksakal news portal reported on Tuesday.

They allegedly sold an 18-month-old girl for 400,000 rubles (about $13,000) on September 30 and a newborn boy for 550,000 rubles on October 30.

Dzhenet Saidulaeva, head of the pediatrics department at the Khasavyurt city hospital, and Batuli Chupalaeva, a doctor at the Makhachkala city maternity home, were detained on suspicion of involvement in the crime.

Police believe the two doctors helped persuade maternity ward patients to abandon their newborns.

In October, a 61-year-old woman, believed to be a member of the gang, was detained in the city of Grozny as she negotiated a child sale. Later another woman, 60, an obstetrician at the Khasavyurt maternity ward, was detained.

The women are believed to have acted as intermediaries, receiving 50,000 rubles on each deal. The rest of the money allegedly went to the doctors.

Police say the ring sold between eight and 12 children in another North Caucasus republic, Chechnya.

A number of attempts to sell children have been thwarted in the past few months.

In early November, a woman from Russia's Far Eastern Khabarovsk Territory was sentenced to three years in prison for attempting to sell her five-year-old son for 300,000 rubles ($9,500).