Crime

Group Charged With Seeking To Traffic Taiwanese Nationals for Organ Harvesting

Published
Updated

By Eason Chen/John Van Trieste

Open in App

Members of an alleged criminal ring have been charged with seeking to sell Taiwanese nationals to Chinese organ harvesters. Prosecutors say the group, which included minors, lured potential victims with fake job ads.

Investigators search for clues in this house, where they think they’ve busted an organ harvesting ring. It’s a new twist on a familiar scam: fake online job ads promising high pay...in this case for smuggling gold or acting as money mules.


Unsuspecting recruits would be held captive before being shipped off to China... where organ harvesters were waiting. The scheme might have worked. But police investigating one of the group members for another crime came upon an incriminating chat log revealing the ring’s plans.


LI CHIEN-HAN, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION BUREAU:
"For each victim sent abroad to have their organs harvested [the criminals] could get around [US$285,000]. The investigation has already found three victims who, fortunately, had not yet been sent abroad."


Now comes the trial: prosecutors have indicted seven suspects. Three more, who are still minors, will go to juvenile court. Prosecutors want seven-year prison sentences.


WU CHING-YI, TAIWAN TAOYUAN DIST. PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE:
"The suspects in this case stand accused of breaking the Organized Crime Prevention Act Human Trafficking Prevention Act and Criminal Code by human trafficking with the goal of profiting by sending people overseas."


Investigators have foiled this plot. But scams that became notorious for luring job applicants abroad for ransom and exploitation seem to have taken a gruesome new turn.


Eason Chen and John Van Trieste for TaiwanPlus.