Packed the Kidneys with Seafood and Shipped them by Air

The Beijing News Report                                    2014-08-10

In July, the Qingshan Lake District Court in Nanchang, Jiangxi tried the case of illegal organ trading, and revealed the secret kidney trading chain: recruiting donors from the Internet, raising donors in captivity, taking kidneys, transporting them by air, and transplanting them in just 5 months. The criminal gang raised nearly 40 people, sold 23 kidneys, and made illegal profits of 1.548 million yuan.

Most of the members of this huge kidney trafficking gang spanning Jiangxi and Guangdong were living kidney donors or recipients. They are at the bottom of the profit chain, and at the top of the profit chain are kidney transplant hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. The two colluded to grab most of the profits. .

The huge gap in demand for kidney sources provides survival and profit margins for the kidney trading group. Experts believe that a well-designed system for cadaveric organ donation will help narrow the gap.

In October 2011, Wang Hu (pseudonym) stayed here for more than half a month in an unremarkable small hotel near the Honggutan second-hand car market in Nanchang, Jiangxi.

He can’t go out at will. Zhao Zhen, a Shandong native with a height of more than 1.8 meters, closely guards him 24 hours a day and provides him with meals. Wang Hu said that he eats and sleeps every day, “just like being raised in captivity.”

One night more than 20 days later, a white Toyota car took Wang Hu out of the hotel. In the car, Wang Hu was blindfolded. After taking off the blindfold, Wang Hu found himself in an ordinary ward, where five medical staff were standing by the operating table and staring at him.

Wang Hu is a living kidney donor recruited from the Internet by a kidney trafficking group, and is the first link in the kidney trafficking chain. The members of the gang headed by Chen Feng have a clear division of labor, raising donors in captivity, taking kidneys, transporting them to different places, and transplanting them, forming a tight chain of kidney sales interests.

In July 2014, the People’s Court of Qingshan Lake District, Nanchang, Jiangxi made a first-instance verdict on this huge organization selling human organs. The 12 defendants were sentenced to 2 years to 9 years and 6 months in prison for the crime of selling human organs.

Soliciting Kidney Sellers Online

The living kidney donors are young men in their 20s to early 30s. They sell their kidneys for “quick money.”

Anhui youth Wang Hu made the decision to sell his kidney out of anger.

In September 2011, 21-year-old Wang Hu had a big quarrel with his father. He seldom traveled far and was determined to work hard outside. Once he was wandering the Internet and saw a publicity about selling kidneys to make money, so he contacted the netizen “Jiangxi Xiaoli” through QQ.

“Jiangxi Xiao Li” told Wang Hu that he could get 25,000 yuan for selling a kidney. In order to prove to his father that he could be independent, Wang Hu, who was 21 years old at the time, agreed to sell his kidney somewhat “pissed off”. Under the guidance of “Jiangxi Xiaoli”, Wang Hu arrived in Nanchang. In Nanchang, Wang Hu was “raised” in a cramped small hotel as a living kidney donor. The young man who took care of him was Zhao Zhen, who was also a living kidney donor.

Half a month later, Wang Hu was taken to a private hospital for a physical examination, but the matching was unsuccessful. A week later, he was taken to the Jiangxi Provincial Armed Police Hospital for a physical examination, and this time the match was successful. Successful matching between recipients and donors is a key part of kidney transplantation. According to the needs of recipients, donors are screened for matching, and only those with successful matching can undergo kidney transplantation. Because the matching rate is very low, some donors have not met a matching recipient after waiting for a long time, so kidney dealers have to resell the donors to other kidney dealer organizations.

While Wang Hu was spending time in the hotel, 27-year-old Zheng Xiping (pseudonym) was also taken to a rented house not far from Wang Hu for “captivity”.

Zheng Xiping is from Chenzhou, Hunan. While working in Guangzhou in 2011, he was obsessed with “slot machine” gambling, lost tens of thousands of yuan, and gradually lost confidence in life. During an online wandering, he contacted a netizen named “Mo Ge”, who told him that he could get 22,000 yuan by selling his kidney.

In November of that year, Zheng Xiping came to Nanchang from Guangzhou under the guidance of “Mo Ge”. After being “captive” for more than ten days, he was taken to the Jiangxi Provincial Armed Police Hospital for a physical examination and was successfully matched.

Donors are the source of kidney sales. “Jiangxi Xiaoli” and “Mo Ge” search for potential kidney sellers online. They usually post “quick money” and “sell kidneys” in forums and persuade interested parties to buy kidneys. guide them to Nanchang, where Zuo Handong finds a place to raise them in captivity.

The long-term shortage of organ sources has provided profit and living space for the black market of organs. According to the investigation by the police, from October 2011 to February 2012, the kidney sales group recruited and “raised” nearly 40 donors, and 23 live kidney donors were kept in captivity near Honggutan, Nanchang. In a small hotel or rented room, once the physical examination and type matching are successful, they will be “led” out to get a kidney.

Most of these living kidney donors are young guys, from the age of 20 to their early 30s. The reasons for selling their kidneys are different. Some of them are in urgent need of money to repay their debts due to business failure, some owe gambling debts because of gambling, and some because of There is a lack of bonus money for marriage, but the same thing is that they are all for “quick money”, and the income from selling their kidneys is between 22,000 and 25,000 yuan.

The Grass Team Takes Kidney

The operating room where the kidney was removed was rented from a private hospital, and the medical staff involved in the operation were recruited from multiple hospitals.

On the night of the successful matching, Wang Hu underwent a kidney removal operation. Before the operation, a young man named Chen Tong took out a donation book and asked him to copy it. Wang Hu wrote on the paper: “I donate a kidney voluntarily, and I am responsible for all the consequences, which have nothing to do with anyone.”

This donation book has no legal effect. The law does not allow transactions involving human organs. For living organ donation, the law stipulates that only spouses, direct blood relatives or collateral blood relatives within three generations, and existence due to assistance can form a family relationship. transplant.

After the operation, Wang Hu woke up and found that his left abdomen was wrapped in thick white gauze—his left kidney had been removed.

On the third day after the operation, Wang Hu was blindfolded again and took him to a big hotel to stay. Three days later, he returned to his hometown in Anhui with 25,000 yuan from Zuo Handong.

The other 22 living kidney donors were also operated on in this hospital. The person who set up this surgical team is the organizer Liu Yongdong. The operating room was rented by Liu Yongdong from Nanchang Huazhong Hospital. This hospital is a private hospital with general departments. The shareholders are Chen Shenglu, deputy chief physician of Jiangxi Provincial Occupational Disease Prevention Hospital, and his nephew Chen Shaohui. In Nanchang, only two public tertiary hospitals have professional qualifications for organ transplantation.

Each time, Liu Yongdong paid Huazhong Hospital 35,000 yuan for renting the operating room. For private hospitals, this is a lot of money. When questioned by the police, Chen Shenglu denied knowing the real purpose of Liu Yongdong’s lease of the venue.

The grass-roots medical team was put together impromptu by Liu Yongdong. The chief surgeon was Jiang Zhenglin invited from Guangxi, the surgical assistant was Wan Peng, a young doctor from the Jiangxi Provincial Armed Police Hospital, the anesthetist was Xiao Cong, an anesthetist at the Second People’s Hospital of Nanchang, and the two nurses also worked together. From Jiangxi Provincial Armed Police Hospital.

When the incident happened in July 2012, Nanchang Huazhong Hospital was sealed up by the police. The reporter searched for it at the old address recently, and the hospital’s sign has been removed.

For each kidney extraction operation, the chief surgeon can get a remuneration of about 10,000 yuan, while other people’s remuneration ranges from 1,000 to 4,000 yuan.

Liu Yongdong met the above-mentioned medical staff during his long-term medical treatment. Liu Yongdong is from Ruichang, Jiangxi. He was diagnosed with uremia and kidney failure in 2005. In 2006, he underwent a kidney transplant at the Jiangxi Provincial Armed Police Hospital. The total cost was about 150,000 yuan, almost ruining his entire family.

In 2010, Liu Yongdong suffered from renal failure again and needed to find another kidney source for a kidney replacement. Liu Yongdong said that the idea of “wanting to watch his son grow up” made him start looking for a new kidney source again.

Liu Yongdong contacted Zuo Handong on the Internet, wanting to know about the situation of buying and selling kidneys in the black market. In 2011, Zuo Handong pulled him to join the kidney trafficking gang.

Liu Yongdong told the Beijing News reporter that at first he just wanted to find a new kidney source for himself, but later he found out that it was very profitable, so he gradually became greedy and joined a kidney trafficking gang. Due to frequent visits to various hospitals in Nanchang, Liu Yongdong is very familiar with many doctors and nurses. His main job in the kidney sales team is to contact doctors and nurses. According to his confession, he received 10,000 yuan from each transaction.

Live the kidney in the name of seafood

The freshly removed kidney soaked in medicine, packed in a refrigerator, and airlifted to Guangzhou in the name of seafood

When Wang Hu was undergoing a kidney removal operation at Nanchang Huazhong Hospital, Mo Yongqing had already flown from Guangzhou to Nanchang in advance, waiting to bring the kidney back to Guangzhou. Soon after the operation, Chen Tong took the fresh kidney out of the hospital and handed it over to Zuo Handong, and collected 1,500 yuan from Zuo Handong for all the remuneration in the past few days.

Most of the kidneys handled by Zuo Handong and Liu Yongdong went to Chen Feng, a Guangzhou pharmaceutical businessman. Mo Yongqing was Chen Feng’s “horse boy”, responsible for transporting the kidneys back to Guangzhou, and was paid 3,000 yuan each time.

The kidneys taken from Zuo Handong were soaked in liquid medicine and placed in a refrigerator. When going through the airport security check, Mo Yongqing told the security check staff that the box contained frozen seafood. Passed smoothly every time.

Mo Yongqing himself once sold a kidney. Mo Yongqing’s parents owed 300,000 yuan in debt. In order to find money for emergencies, in 2010, Mo Yongqing found an intermediary in Xiamen on the Internet. The intermediary lied to him that he could get 100,000 yuan from selling kidneys. Mo Yongqing was tempted: ” I can still live without a kidney, and at that time I thought that if I had money to pay off my debts, my parents wouldn’t have to be forced to hang themselves.”

The first agency did not find a matching receptor. Mo Yongqing was introduced to the agency in Zhengzhou, and then to the agency in Guangzhou. “I was sold by intermediaries like a piglet, and finally met Chen Feng.” Mo Yongqing said.

But Chen Feng only offered Mo Yongqing 25,000 yuan, and Mo Yongqing gritted his teeth and sold his left kidney. After selling his kidneys, Mo Yongqing found that his physical strength had declined, he often had colds and fevers, and could not do heavy work. In order to help his parents repay the debt, he asked Chen Feng to borrow money again, and Chen Feng dragged him into the kidney selling business.

Mo Yongqing said that after having his kidney removed, he felt the pain of weakness and felt guilty every time he transported a kidney.

Liu Yongdong introduced that in the kidney trafficking gang, except for the medical staff, most of the participants are directly related to organ transplantation—either they were donors or recipients before, and everyone is tied to the profit chain of organ trading. After the kidneys were removed from the donors, many people voluntarily joined the kidney selling organization, because after selling the kidneys, their health deteriorated, and they were basically unable to undertake more tiring work.

Chen Tong, a boy from Shandong who was in charge of taking care of Wang Hu, was the partner Liu Yongdong found online in 2011. 29-year-old Chen Tong once sold his liver due to business failure.

The “big boss” of the kidney selling group, Zuo Handong, also sold his kidney to Chen Feng for 60,000 yuan in his early years. Later, Chen Feng took the initiative to contact him and asked him to help find a “kidney harvesting hospital”, and he then joined the kidney selling group.

Behind the scenes: Drug dealers colluded with hospitals

In order to maintain the relationship with the hospital, drug dealer Chen Feng sells more drugs, colludes with doctors, and provides illegal kidney sources

In the last link of the kidney sales chain, Chen Feng is the big boss behind the scenes. He is the chairman of Guangzhou Mengjiadi Trading Co., Ltd. and sells medicines related to organ transplantation. According to him, selling medicine can earn several million yuan every year.

Chen Feng confessed to the police that because of selling drugs, he established relationships with many transplant doctors in Guangzhou Hospital. In 2010, Zhu Yunsong, deputy director of the Kidney Transplantation Department of the Guangzhou Military Region General Hospital, told him that the supply of kidneys was very tight, and many patients were waiting for kidney transplants. Zhu asked him to go outside to contact some kidney sources for brain-dead patients.

In 2010, Chen Feng met Zuo Handong from Jiangxi on the Internet. Zuo Handong said that he was familiar with Jiangxi Armed Police General Hospital and could provide kidneys for brain-dead patients. Chen Feng sent Mo Yongqing to Nanchang and Jingdezhen to get kidneys from Zuo Handong, and then sold the kidneys to Zhu Yunsong.

Chen Feng denied that the purpose of selling kidneys was to make a profit. “I sell medicines for a very high profit, and I don’t care about the small money of buying and selling organs. The main purpose is to maintain relationships and make medicines.” Police investigation found that every time Chen Feng provided Zhu Yunsong with a kidney, He got 120,000 yuan, of which 105,000 yuan was distributed to Zuo Handong, the Jiangxi intermediary gang of the Kidney Trafficking Group, and 1,500 yuan was distributed to Mo Yongqing, who could earn more than 10,000 yuan.

At present, Zhu Yunsong is being dealt with in a separate case, but many uremia patients on the Internet still post to express their gratitude to him.

According to the law, before organ transplantation, the clinical academic and ethics committees should review the legality of the source of the organ. A reporter from the Beijing News called the person in charge of the department responsible for organ transplantation at the General Hospital of the Guangzhou Military Region the night before, asking about the formal procedures that the hospital should perform in organ transplant operations. The person in charge refused to be interviewed.

According to an organ transplant doctor at a tertiary hospital in Beijing, the patient undergoes a kidney transplant, and the kidney source plus operation fees and recuperation costs are about 500,000 yuan. Due to the shortage of kidney resources, it cannot be ruled out that some hospitals acquiesce in illegal kidney inflow. “Patients are in desperate need, hospitals are making money, and some doctors have acquiesced in falsified information.”

According to police investigation, from October 2011 to February 2012, a kidney trafficking gang headed by Chen Feng performed kidney removal operations on 23 donors. Of the 23 kidneys that were removed, 21 were transported to the General Hospital of the Guangzhou Military Region for transplantation. Two of them were transplanted by Liu Yongdong in private hospitals in Jiangxi and Guangzhou by doctors.

Liu Yongdong told the Beijing News reporter that in the entire profit chain, his income is only a small part, just enough to live on. In October 2011, Liu Yongdong decided to take a risk to make a lot of money. He organized a doctor to perform a kidney transplant on Ms. Luo, a uremic patient in Ruijin, Jiangxi Province, and charged Ms. Luo 415,000 yuan in cash. Liu Yongdong refused to disclose to the reporter his share of the income, only saying that “it is not a small number.”

Ms. Luo also confirmed this statement to a reporter from the Beijing News the day before yesterday. She suffers from uremia and has not been able to obtain a suitable kidney source. In August 2011, she contacted Liu Yongdong. In November of that year, Liu Yongdong found a matching kidney source and arranged for Ms. Luo to undergo a kidney transplant operation at Huazhong Hospital. The chief surgeon was Zhou Kaizhang, an organ transplant expert invited by Liu Yongdong.

Ms. Luo said that she recovered well after the operation, and thanked Liu Yongdong personally, “After all, I saved my life.”

Liu Yongdong is currently released on bail due to kidney failure. He said that his main concern is how to obtain a suitable kidney source and save his life. He said, “In recent years, the number of kidney sources has been decreasing. If you can get a suitable kidney source from a formal channel, no one wants to do something illegal.”

According to public data, currently about 300,000 people in China are waiting for organ transplants every year, but about 10,000 cases have been successfully transplanted. Many patients have to turn to illegal areas to find kidneys.

Zhai Xiaomei, executive director of the Bioethics Research Center of Peking Union Medical College, told reporters that living organ transplants are at the cost of harming the health of another person, and the sale of living organs is strictly prohibited all over the world. The commercialization of organ transplantation will widen the social gap, and huge benefits will even give birth to crimes and illegal acts. She said that the existing donation model in our country is far from meeting the demand, and the best way is to encourage organ donation after death.