Last update - 00:00 23/07/2007
Police arrest nine accused of trafficking human organs
By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent
Police on Sunday arrested nine suspects accused of being members of a ring that dealt in the illegal sale and transplanting of human organs. The suspects were brought to a Nazareth court on Monday for a hearing to consider extending their remand.
Police believe the suspects printed advertisements offering money to people willing to donate an organ. Those who answered the ads were then flown to the Ukraine where they had the organs in question removed. The organs were then transplanted into patients who were solicited by the suspects back in Israel.
A number of the people who agreed to sell their organs never received payment according to police allegations.
Investigations into the affair began a few weeks ago after a complaint was received from a resident of the north, 30, who flew to Ukraine and underwent surgery to have organs removed, and never received payment.
Police deployed an undercover agent to answer advertisements, posted in the north of the country in Arabic and Russian and offering cash for donated organs. The investigation revealed that the sum offered was $35,000 for an unspecified organ.
During the course of the investigation, the undercover agent underwent the preliminary screening and was slated to fly to Ukraine to undergo surgery.
The investigation revealed that each member of the organ trafficking ring had a specific job, from identifying potential donors to contacting and dealing with the group's contacts in the Ukraine.
On Sunday, at the hour that the agent was scheduled to take off for the Ukraine, police and border patrolmen arrested nine suspects at Ben-Gurion International Airport and at their places of residence in Israel.
Police have still not determined the identities of the recipients of the transplants.