Chinese kidney traffickers caught with help from reporters' undercover investigation

Chinese kidney traffickers caught with help from reporters' undercover investigation

A posting on China Daily Forum showed a series of photographs where China police busted a gang of kidney traffickers.

According to the article that sourced news.qq.com, police also caught more that 10 suspects of the trafficking ring in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province.

Local authorities were alerted by a man who was the victim of the kidney trafficking.

Identified as Li Wei, he said he had intended to sell his own kidney to clear his debts but had entered into a more hopeless situation after the operation. The posting does not entirely explain why Li Wei feels this way but one of the photos showed the distinct scar on his body after selling his kidney to the gang.

It was reported that Li Wei had posted a message online about selling his kidney in early April this year. A man named Mr Xu had spotted his posting where he met him and took him to a rented country house where Li Wei's left kidney was surgically removed.

He was paid 30,000 yuan (S$6,300) for his organ.

Another photo showed that a number of people shared the profits from the kidney trafficking. It was reported that a recipient of a kidney had to spend 400,000 yuan. The doctor in charge of the operation would receive 130,000 yuan while the anesthetist got paid 30,000 yuan and each nurse got 10,000 yuan. It was also reported that the rest of the money was shared among the informants who found the kidney recipients and donors for the trafficking ring.

On Aug 7, 2013, four reporters found the country house where the kidney removal operations were conducted through Li Wei's tip off. The reporters kept track on the house and one photo showed an unknown man in the second floor of the house.

On Aug 9, 2013, the alleged head of the trafficking gang, Mr Xu and his driver showed up at the front of the monitored house.

On Aug 18, 2013 at about 8pm, it was reported that alleged members of the gang including a doctor, an anesthetist and two nurses came to the house. About 40 policemen, then, surrounded the house and at around 10pm, all the members of the gang were arrested by the police.

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