Morocco Arrest of four people suspected of involvement in human organ trade

The General Directorate of National Security in Morocco announced the arrest of four people suspected of being linked to a network trafficking human organs outside the country. According to the directorate's statement, the suspects, a man and three women, were linked to a post on social media offering organ removal services abroad.

Moroccan police announced the arrest of four people suspected of having links to a network outside Morocco "active in trafficking in human organs", a statement from the General Directorate of National Security said on Tuesday.

The statement published by the Moroccan News Agency said that the detainees, who are a man and three women, "are suspected of being involved in the displacement of people abroad and mediation in the trafficking of their human organs," noting that they were referred to the Public Prosecution Office on Tuesday in Casablanca.

The arrest of the suspects came as a result of investigations into an “advertisement published on social media, offering the services of removing human organs, specifically total, in private clinics outside Morocco in exchange for sums of money in foreign currencies,” according to the same source.

The Moroccan police said that the investigations also allowed "to find two victims, who sold their kidneys in Turkey for sums of money in foreign currencies."

This type of case is rare in Morocco, while the police have booked "blood analyzes of several presumed victims".

The statement of the General Directorate of National Security stated that the suspects "were linked to a criminal network operating outside Morocco, including foreign nationals involved in the removal and sale of human organs."

He pointed out that searches are continuing, in coordination with the International Police Office in Ankara, "to identify and arrest all foreign and Moroccan participants and shareholders involved in the commission of these criminal acts."

He also pointed out that the detainees were "exploiting some of the victims in the operations of receiving and transporting quantities of drugs, inside and outside Morocco."