Costa Rican Organ Trafficking

Costa Rican police have arrested a doctor for organ trafficking. Dr Francisco Jose Mora, a prominent nephrologist, is allegedly the key figure in a large-scale transnational racket, linked to Israel and Eastern Europe. A police officer who allegedly sourced potential organ donors was also arrested.

"Dr Mora was the general coordinator of the entire international operation," said Jorge Chavarría, Costa Rica's chief prosecutor. "He did everything from interviewing donors to financing tests to determine compatibility."

According to the Mexican newspaper El Universal two Israelis had paid to a Costa Rican and a Nicaraguan US$6,000 to obtain two kidneys that were transplanted in a Costa Rican private clinic. The Costa Rican newspaper CRHoy reported that a woman donor had died on her way back from Israel after a transplant.

The arrests shines a light on the dark side of Costa Rica's booming medical tourism industry. "Costa Rica is known worldwide for its transplant tourism," Roberto Tanus, president of the Transplant Society of Latin America and the Caribbean, told El Universal. "Everyone knows what we are talking about here. Transplant tourism is an elegant disguise for what is really the illicit trafficking of organs."

Related reading:  Organ Trafficking

Criminal World's Bank of Choice

Associated Press 

"Calling it perhaps the biggest money-laundering scheme in U.S. history, federal prosecutors charged seven people Tuesday with running what amounted to an online, underworld bank that handled $6 billion for drug dealers, child pornographers, identity thieves and other criminals around the globe. 

The case was aimed at Liberty Reserve, a currency-transfer and payment-processing company based in Costa Rica that authorities say allowed customers to move money anonymously from one account to another via the Internet with almost no questions asked. 

U.S. officials said the enterprise was staggering in scope. The probe involved law enforcement in 17 countries “and is believed to be the largest money laundering prosecution in history,” the prosecutor’s office said. Over roughly seven years, Liberty Reserve processed 55 million illicit transactions worldwide for 1 million users, including 200,000 in the U.S. The network "became the bank of choice for the criminal underworld," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.