Labeled as seafood, a shipment of human kidneys from the city of Nanshang to Guangzhou has revealed the black market for human organs is still thriving in China.

First reported in June in the Beijing News, the unsettling discovery led to an underground network of 12 people involved. Storing organs in a refrigerated container, one of the transporters, identified as Mo Yongqing, told authories he listed the contents as seafood, a common cover used in the illicit organ trade and one that arouses little suspicion from airport authorities.

Like Us on Facebook

Mo and his cohorts, whom reports in China refer to as a "gang," made more than 1.5 million yuan ($243,600 USD) between October 2011 and February 2012. Donors were recruited online; of the 40 contacted, 23 had a kidney removed.

Not restricted to China, iIlegal organ harvesting is a multi-million dollar, world-wide phenomenon, stretching from Mexico to Pakistan. Statistics are difficult to track, but the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in 2012, 10,000 black market surgeries involving kidneys alone took place, a rate of more than one per hour. Recipients can pay up to $200,000 for a kidney, which makes up to 75 percent of world black market organs sales.

While reports abound of people being kidnapped and all but having organs ripped out of them, the Chinese case was surprising professional. The investigations surrounding Mo Yongqing revealed most donors were in their 20s or 30s and were paid between 22,000 and 25,000 yuan (between $3,500 and $4,000 USD). Mo's superior in the scheme, Chen Feng, chairman of the Guangzhou Mengjiadi Trading Co, told police he knew many transplant doctors in Guangzhou because the company sold medicines. Mo and Chen legitimized their organ ring by saying there was money to be made, a demand to be met, and willing donors. 

Mo implicated Nanchang Huazhong Hospital, saying he and his gang paid administrators 35,000 yuan ($5,600) an operating room for each operation. Reports named at least one Nanchang Huazhong doctor, Jiang Zhenglin, as being involved with the shady transplants, being paid 10,000 yuan ($1,600) for each. Nurses were "borrowed" from surrounding medical facilities and paid 4,000 yuan ($650) each for their expertice. 

Nanchang Huazhong Hospital has since been closed, but the investigation suggested the closure did not make even a dent in the industry. Underground networks simply move to another region. Officials admit its prevalence across the country is a black eye on the Chinese medical field and government alike,

Mo and his partners were handed down two- to nine-year prison sentences. Beijing has vowed to stamp out the practice by 2017. 

TagsBlack market organs