Police crack organ-trading ring

Police in Poyang, Jiangxi province, arrested a gang of six people suspected of involvement in human organ trading, Legal Daily reported on Thursday.

One of suspects surnamed Li, a 25-year-old resident in Poyang, allegedly sold a kidney for more than 20,000 yuan ($3,150) to buy drugs in 2009 and met another suspect surnamed Deng, who also sold a kidney at that time, the report said.

The two confessed to the police that they later set up a "black agency" to earn money by supplying kidneys with the other four people after finding such operations were a good way to get rich, said the report.

The six suspects are now detained in Poyang county's public security bureau and the case is still being investigated.

The police also found 10 organ providers, who are all from other provinces and range in age from 18 to 27 years old, according to the report. Two of them are university students.

The gang allegedly published information online, and even went to hospitals to find patients or their relatives to do face-to-face "sale promotions", according to the police.

A kidney can be sold for between 30,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan, but for uremia patients the organ could be sold for more than 280,000 yuan, the report said.

Since the end of July, when the Ministry of Public Security launched a crackdown on human organ traffickers, police have arrested 137 suspects and rescued 127 potential organ suppliers, a statement from the ministry said.