Egyptian authorities on Tuesday (December 6th) announced the arrest of 25 members of an international network allegedly trafficking in human organs, AFP reported.
"Today at dawn, the largest international network for trading human organs has been captured," the country's Administrative Control Authority said in a statement on its website.
The network "is made up of Egyptians and Arabs taking advantage of some of the citizens' difficult economic conditions so that they buy their human organs and sell [them] for large sums of money", it said.
The authority, responsible for tracking corruption cases in state institutions, said 25 people were arrested, including university professors, doctors, medical workers, owners of medical centres, intermediaries and brokers.
They were found in possession of "millions of dollars and gold bullion", it said.
Ten medical centres and laboratories had been searched and the authorities had found documents related to the charge and computers with trading information.
Egypt's parliament passed a law in 2010 banning commercial trade in organs as well as transplants between Egyptians and foreigners, except in cases of husband and wife.
The law aimed to regulate organ transplants in a bid to curb illegal trafficking and tourism for such operations.
