Five arrested in Spain’s first case of human organ trafficking

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In the first bust of its kind in Spain, judicial police in Valencia arrested five people – all non-Spaniards – who were allegedly involved in a major human organ trafficking ring. 

The case broke after a rich 61-year-old Lebanese man had tried to use the organization for a liver transplant. It was not immediately clear when the arrests were made. 

In 2012, an NGO alerted authorities that a group was offering high sums of money to migrants without papers to purchase their vital organs, such as kidneys and sections of liver. Around the same time health authorities in Valencia detected that a group of people was undergoing complicated procedures at a private clinic. 

A 2010 Penal Code reform prohibits anyone in Spain from buying or selling human organs. All such procedures are regulated by the National Transplant Organization (ONT), which compiles waiting lists and seeks donors. Under the law, organs can be donated by family members of dead loved ones or by people who wish to leave them when they die. But the ONT has strict guidelines for such transplants as well as for donors. 

Last year, more than 4,200 legal transplants were conducted in Spain with kidneys and liver the organs most frequently substituted. 

The man from Lebanon, who was not identified but was also arrested in the sting , holds an important political position in his country and had traveled to Spain after he reportedly contacted the group. Lebanese health professionals had told the man of the advanced organ transplant procedures that take place in Spain. 

A number of people – the exact figure was not given by sources in the case – underwent tests that cost as much as €15,000 at the private clinic to determine their compatibility with those needing transplants. 

The majority of the migrants who offered their vital organs were poor. One woman was a perfect match and was willing to donate part of her liver for the sick man in exchange for €40,000. At first, the Lebanese man was happy with the deal but backed down when he found out the donor was a woman; he considered that accepting the transplant would be going against his Islamic beliefs. 

The Lebanese man was eventually able to receive his transplant in a legal operation – one of his children donated part of their own liver – but he was arrested in Madrid after traveling there to undergo medical examinations after the procedure.

VOCABULARY
BUST: raid, arrest (redada)ALLEGEDLY: supuestamente
INVOLVED IN: involucrado en
MAJOR:  large (gran)
RING: banda
UNDERGO: pass through, experience (someterse a) 
PROCEDURE: series of steps (procedimientos) 
COMPILE: collect , gather(recopila)
CONDUCT: carry out (llevar a cabo) 
STING: operación encubierta
REPORTEDLY: allegedly (supuestamente , según consta)
WILLING TO: ready, favourably disposed (dispuesto a) 
DEAL : trato
BACK DOWN : echarse atrás

Lebanese mayor arrested in Spain, accused of offering £33,000 to anyone who could get him a liver for a transplant

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The wealthy mayor of a Lebanese town has been arrested in Spain over allegations he offered to pay poor migrants 40,000 euros (£33,500) for a liver transplant. 

The 61-year-old was arrested in January at Manises Airport, Valencia, and is on bail in the country facing preliminary charges of alleged organ trafficking.

Authorities would not release his name, nor those of his alleged accomplices, because the suspects were the subjects of an ongoing court investigation.

'The main message is that no country is totally free of this problem, so that everybody should be alert,'

'Organ trafficking is more or less like slaves of some centuries ago. It's the way some people really control other people. It's exploitation of human beings.'

Police say the mayor enlisted four alleged accomplices - three Lebanese and a Palestinian - who recruited nine poor people to have liver compatibility tests at a clinic in Valencia last summer.

Just one, a Romanian immigrant, proved to be a match. But when he went with the Lebanese mayor to a Barcelona transplant clinic, medical workers blocked the procedure, police said.

Spanish rules stipulate that organs must only be donated for altruistic reasons by donors who are family members or close friends of the recipient.

Hospital staff quickly discovered that the Lebanese mayor did not have that kind of relationship with his Romanian donor.

The mayor eventually got his liver transplant using tissue donated by his son, who had earlier been turned down after tests in Lebanon where medics had told him he was too young.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2579827/Lebanese-mayor-arrested-Spain-organ-trafficking-allegations-Police-say-offered-pay-poor-people-liver-tissue.html