Six people are in custody, members of an alleged organ trafficking ring in Eretz Yisrael, a ring that netted the suspects millions. Among the suspects in custody is an IDF reserve duty brigadier-general, a recipient of a prestigious service award for his actions during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

According to reports, the ring advertised on the Internet and in newspapers, offering a kidney for $140,000, advertising to pay donors between $10,000 and up to $100,000, but recipients who donated organs were never paid.

A Nazareth woman turned to police after being flown to Azerbaijan to donate a kidney, explaining they took her organ but she never received payment. A second complainant, a teen, told police he was promised $80,000, giving a kidney but never receiving payment.

Police indicate in some cases, recipients were not in good health, but the operators of the ring hid medical records, complicating efforts in Israel to provide them with proper medical care.

This will most likely lend some credibility to a Swedish media report appearing in YWN-Israel in August alleging “IDF involvement” in organ trafficking. There have also been other reports alleging Israeli involvement in illegal organ trafficking since that report.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)