Sunday, January 15, 2017

Black markets for kidney transplants--arrests in Israel

A late December story of black markets and law enforcement from the Times of Israel:
2 charged with running international organ traffic ring. Patients allegedly paid $180,000 for a kidney; illegal transplants carried out in Turkey, Bulgaria, Thailand, Philippines

"Roini Shimshilashvili and Albert Murdakhayev were charged with multiple counts of trafficking in organs, brokering organ trafficking and conspiracy, according to a court statement. A third man, identified as a doctor, Zachi Shapira, was charged with multiple counts of assisting in organ trafficking.
...
"The two men allegedly found prospective donors from the former Soviet Union who matched sick Israelis. The donors would be paid to donate their kidneys to the Israelis, “who paid sums of up to $180,000 in most cases,” the court heard. It was not clear how much the donors were paid.

...

"In the last two years, the ring reportedly arranged for 14 transplants in four countries; Turkey, Bulgaria, Thailand and Philippines"


HT: Robert Gutman

2 comments:

ariel karlinsky said...

Thanks for the info, would love to hear your own comments on this and other news you post :)

Anonymous said...

Some similar earlier cases with strange possible intelligence connections:

http://assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2010/20101218_ajdoc462010provamended.pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/14/illegal-organ-removals-charges-kosovo
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/kosovo-organ-trafficking-how-the-claims-were-exposed-09-04-2015-1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_theft_in_Kosovo