Drug cartels and criminals are killing people to harvest their organs and supply Americans desperate for a transplant, a harrowing documentary reveals today. The illegal organs trade is not a figment of Hollywood’s imagination, but is “alive and well”, the new series of Trafficked says.
It is suspected a fifth of Americans needing a transplant have turned to the black market.
Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller, who explored the trade in Mexico and Colombia, said it required only a quick online search to find a willing donor, particularly in poverty stricken south-east Asia and India.
Where there is money to be made, “bad actors” quickly muscle in, she warned.
“I was under the impression it was one of those rumoured trades. But unfortunately, what we discovered was it very much exists and it exists right up to the doorstep of the United States,” she said.
“There were American patients crossing the border into Mexico paying for these black market organs.”
With 17 Americans dying every day waiting for an organ, “obviously there are lots of people who are willing to do anything they can to survive. If that means going on the black market, there are lots of people who are willing to sell their organs,” she said.
“But there is a darker side to that, which is the cartels or criminal groups’ involvement. They are forcing people, even to the extent of killing people, for their organs.
“That was so shocking and horrible to find out.”
One US surgeon told her he suspected 10 to 20 percent of patients had received an illicit organ, “but believes that number is much higher”.
- Trafficked, National Geographic TV, tonight, 9pm.
