A woman was arrested in Venezuela for offering a human kidney for sale for $20,000 through social media, Attorney General Tarek William Saab said Saturday night.
“After posts illegally bidding through *Marketplace* a kidney in the amount of $20,000… the location of one of the people who made this type of offer was determined and the content of the publication could be verified on his phone”The prosecutor said on Twitter.
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In social networks, complaints circulated about the sale of organs through the platform of Facebookwhich has also been used for scams and other crimes related to kidnapping, according to the Police.
The prosecutor accompanied his tweet with Photographs of the advertisement published by the woman on Marketplace in which “a 15-year-old girl’s kidney in perfect condition” was offered. It is not clear what would be the origin of the organ.
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According to William Saab, the detainee, Marielys del Carmen Yedrwill be imputed for “donation for profit”.
The prosecution investigates whether there is a “criminal network” behind these types of publications.
In Venezuela there is no official record on organ trafficking, but every day thousands of people face the complicated task of obtaining medication to treat their chronic or kidney diseases and undergo dialysis, due to the severe economic crisis that has affected the country for almost one of each.
The organ transplant program stopped working in 2017 and the Venezuelan government argued that it had been suspended due to economic sanctions against the country.
However, several health NGOs assure that the transplant program began to show flaws since 2015.