Journey to destroy kidney trafficking case

Clues to the kidney trafficking "deal"

In early 2023, Mr. PH (born in 1988), residing in Huong Ho ward ( Hue city), suffered from end-stage kidney failure and sent a petition to the Hue City Police Department for help regarding the hundreds of millions of dong he spent unsuccessfully to buy a kidney, but was not returned by the subjects.

According to Mr. H., at the end of 2021, during the time of dialysis and treatment at the Artificial Kidney Department of Hue Central Hospital, through the introduction of many people, Mr. H. searched on Facebook with the purpose of wanting to buy a kidney for transplant.

After a period of searching, Mr. H. met someone who agreed to sell and contacted this person via Facebook. Although he knew the amount of money to buy a kidney was very large, Mr. H. discussed with his family that he would borrow money and after the transplant, he would try to find more work to earn money to pay off the debt.

However, after borrowing 300 million VND out of the total 800 million VND to buy a kidney to advance to the subjects via Facebook, Mr. H. was not able to receive the kidney for transplant, so he contacted to ask for the money back but was unsuccessful. As a last resort, Mr. H. had to ask for help from the Hue City Police.

Immediately after receiving Mr. H's report, detectives from the Criminal Police Department of Hue City Police urgently began investigating. From the patchwork information that Mr. H provided, the Investigation Agency of Hue City Police verified and determined that the incident that Mr. H reported to the police was true.

The Criminal Police Team of Hue City Police has established a special project to fight, aiming to quickly track down and arrest the subjects. After a period of investigation, in early April 2023, the Criminal Police Team of Hue City Police identified two subjects, Nguyen Thanh Tu (born in 1990), permanent residence in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, currently residing at 51 Tran Nguyen Han, Thuan Hoa ward (Hue City) and Nguyen Van Nghia (born in 1990), residing in Mo Cay Nam district, Ben Tre) for the act of "Buying and selling human body parts".

To carry out his act, Nghia contacted N.D.T (born in 1990), a resident of Quang Nam province, who wanted to sell his kidney. Nghia then instructed T. and Mr. H. to perform some tests at Hue Central Hospital.

When T. and Mr. H. had matching test results to perform the kidney transplant, Nghia and Tu agreed that the price for selling T.'s kidney would be 360 million VND. However, Tu met and agreed with Mr. H. on the total cost of buying and successfully transplanting the kidney, totaling 800 million VND, and Mr. H. agreed. Thus, after deducting the price for buying T.'s kidney and other expenses, Tu and Nghia would illegally profit about 400 million VND from this kidney transaction.

Tu received advances from Mr. H. twice with a total amount of 300 million VND (150 million VND each time). After receiving the money from Mr. H., Tu confessed that he gave all of it to Nghia to carry out the transaction and transplant kidney for Mr. H. The remaining amount would be received after the kidney transplant was successful.

When receiving money from Tu, Nghia gave Tu 50 million VND as a brokerage fee and advanced the seller 40 million VND and used about 60 million VND for accommodation, travel and testing, the rest Nghia spent for personal expenses. After a while, T.'s family did not agree to sell the kidney, so the kidney purchase and transplant could not be carried out.

From the investigation, it is known that N.D.T is currently a doctor. The reason T. sold his kidney was because he was in debt and had borrowed money to invest in opening a private clinic. T.'s wife is unemployed, has 3 small children, and has a difficult life.

Before the kidney transplant could begin, T.'s parents were required to sign a consent form. Knowing this, T.'s parents refused to sign the consent form to sell their child's kidney.

Fearing that Tu and Nghia would threaten to force him to redo his paperwork, T. did not dare to return to Hue, so the kidney transaction between H. and T. was not carried out. H. tried every way to contact Tu and Nghia to get his money back, but only received a small amount back, so he wrote a report to the police.

Nguyen Thanh Tu and Nguyen Van Nghia confessed to all their violations. Hue City Police Department affirmed that Nguyen Thanh Tu and Nguyen Van Nghia took advantage of people in difficult circumstances who needed to sell their kidneys and people with kidney failure who needed kidney transplants, buying and selling kidneys for the purpose of profiteering in order to receive the difference in price.

Although it was not carried out due to objective and unintended reasons, the actions of Tu and Nghia were sufficient to constitute the crime of “Trading in human body parts” as stipulated in Clause 1, Article 154 of the Penal Code. The Investigation Police Agency of Hue City Police has prosecuted and temporarily detained Nguyen Thanh Tu and Nguyen Van Nghia.

Portrait of a kidney broker

In fact, Nguyen Thanh Tu and Nguyen Van Nghia had participated in selling kidneys many years ago. Nearly 10 years ago, Tu left the South and went to Hue City to sell coffee near Hue Central Hospital with the purpose of approaching people with kidney failure to connect and find people to buy and sell kidneys.

Previously, Tu had sold a kidney, so he knew that there was a lot of demand for kidney buyers, despite the high price. From there, Tu had the idea of participating in the brokerage, connecting buyers and sellers of kidneys. To avoid detection by the authorities, Tu used Facebook accounts, but did not use his real name to broker kidney sales.

It is worth mentioning that in early 2023, the Investigation Police Agency of Thuan An City Police (Binh Duong) also received a report about a crime with signs of "Buying and selling human tissues or body parts" occurring at Hue Central Hospital related to Nguyen Thanh Tu.

Specifically, Mr. NATh. (born in 1991), residing in Tra Vinh province, borrowed money to treat his mother's stroke, leading to debt, unable to pay the debt, so he went on Facebook to join the group "Finding kidney donors and kidney transplant sources" to learn about selling a kidney to someone in need.

Through a social networking group, Th. was contacted by a Facebook account named “TD” to discuss and agree to sell a kidney for 400 million VND. Th. was given a plane ticket by the account named “TD” to Hanoi to meet Mr. VTT (living in Hanoi) with the purpose of selling a kidney and performing surgery for a patient needing a kidney transplant in Hanoi.

However, the transaction between Th. and T. was unsuccessful for various reasons, so T. introduced Th. to contact Nguyen Thanh Tu, a kidney broker in Hue City. After having all the necessary documents, Tu asked Th. to go to Hue Central Hospital for a medical examination and complete the necessary procedures before donating a kidney to a female patient named LTLH (born in 1971).

After completing the procedures as requested by Tu, Th. agreed to sell a kidney for 400 million VND to the female patient. While Th. went to the doctor and did the paperwork, due to lack of money, Tu gave Th. 200 million VND in advance, but without confirmation from his biological parents, the kidney sale could not be carried out.

People need to go to medical facilities to find out information.

An investigator from the Criminal Police Department of Hue City Police said that recently, on social networking sites, kidney brokers and traders have hidden themselves using cyberspace accounts to commit crimes in a very sophisticated manner. Some sites openly advertise kidney buying and selling.

Through research, there are many public comments about kidney trading on the internet. Many reasons are given such as: Due to difficult circumstances, debt, needing money to take care of children, treating relatives... There are also people who are sick and need to find a kidney for transplant, also go to these websites to buy. This is an environment for "brokers" to buy and sell kidneys in disguise, causing difficulties for the authorities.

Many subjects, knowing the high demand and profits, have colluded with other subjects to form a criminal network of kidney trading. Hue City Police Department recommends that sick people should go to medical facilities to find information, register to receive donated tissues and organs, wait for the opportunity to receive a humanitarian kidney transplant and absolutely not buy or sell kidneys "floating" on the market.

In addition to the involvement of the police force, the authorities also need to strengthen the dissemination of the Law on Donation, Collection and Transplantation of Human Tissues and Organs and the Donation and Collection of Corpses so that people can understand more clearly and fully; avoiding being taken advantage of and defrauded by subjects.

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