http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/10692665/Spanish-police-uncover-human-organ-trafficking-ring.htmlSpanish police uncover human organ trafficking ring
Spanish police arrested five people accused of offering cash to poor immigrants to buy a liver for transplant, the first such trafficking racket uncovered in Spain
By Fiona Govan
Spanish police have arrested five people accused of offering destitute immigrants cash to become liver and kidney donors in the first such organ trafficking racket to be uncovered in Spain.
The group approached illegal immigrants and offered them €40,000 (£33,000) if they proved a match and agreed to donate sections of their liver to a wealthy Lebanese man who had travelled to Valencia, in eastern Spain in search of a transplant.
The man, aged 61, who has not been named but is said to hold political office in his native Lebanon was arrested along with four other foreign nationals, police confirmed in a statement issued on Wednesday.
“Five people were detained for offering 40,000 euros to immigrants without resources so that they would offer themselves for a liver transplant ... the first attempted sale of organs detected in Spain,” the police statement said.
“A rich Lebanese citizen who needed a transplant travelled to Spain and tried unsuccessfully to have the operation” by approaching several immigrants as potential donors, it said.
The network was discovered after an NGO working with the immigrant community in Valencia alerted authorities that large sums of cash were being offered for the purchase of vital organs, including kidneys and sections of liver.
Health authorities discovered that a group of people had been undergoing tests at a private clinic in Valencia to determine whether any proved compatible for the Lebanese man.
Only one of those approached was a match but was rejected after the patient learnt the potential donor was a woman on the grounds that accepting the organ of a female would go against his Islamic beliefs.
Instead he received a legal transplant when one of his children donated a part of their own liver. He was subsequently arrested on returning to Spain for a medical check-up, police confirmed.
“The illegal transplant did not end up being carried out thanks to our legislation and the Spanish system of transplant controls, which prevent the buying and selling of organs,” the police statement said.
Spain has earned a reputation as one of the leading countries for organ transplants in the world, with a rate of 35.1 donors per million people – almost double the average for the European Union.
Last year more than 4,200 legal transplants were conducted successfully.
Topic: Spanish police uncover human organ trafficking ring (Read 2807 times)