This second article in the Freedom Forever series on human trafficking at the border focuses on the grim reality of illegal and illicit live organ harvesting, a disturbing form of human trafficking. Organ harvesting and trafficking along with the transplant tourism that fuels it, is a subject many Americans are reluctant to confront, but is one that urgently needs our attention. Organ harvesting, is not confined to the remote parts of China, where the Falun Gong community has been targeted– it is also happening across our southern border, in Mexico and Central America. Tragically, many of the victims are vulnerable children from disadvantaged migrant families.
In part 1 of our “It is Humane to Secure the Border” Freedom Forever introduced Ali Hopper and Jarrod Sadulski—two courageous individuals whose work spans both on-the-ground interviews with victims of trafficking and conversations with imprisoned traffickers, both current and former. They have together formed a nonprofit called GUARD Against Trafficking.
Their ongoing research continues to produce staggering first-hand accounts of the horrors of trafficked organs. According to their findings, there was a “2,500 percent increase in cartel trafficking” during the Biden administration—a chilling statistic that sheds light on the rising violence and exploitation surrounding our borderless reality.
For some cartels, organ harvesting is a central part of their operations. It’s a brutal, multi-billion-dollar industry, with many of its buyers coming from the U.S., where they seek organs that could take years to acquire on U.S soil. As a result, they turn to clinics and hospitals in Mexico and Central America for faster transplants.. Tragically, little do they know that their organ may have come from an innocent, trusting 12-year-old boy.
In her Nov 19 testimony before the U.S. Congress, Hopper discussed her interviews with traffickers who have been incarcerated in the U.S. and abroad. Hopper and Sadulski have gathered accounts of organ harvesting from two former traffickers. In her testimony, Hopper stressed that trafficking extends beyond sexual exploitation and forced labor, with organs often being sold to U.S. buyers. As she noted, “The trafficking of organs is a deeply disturbing part of this larger issue.”
Please take a moment to listen the following timestamped testimony:
Listening to Hopper’s testimony is one thing, but hearing about organ harvesting operations directly from traffickers is another entirely.
Traffickers Talk About Organ Harvesting
Sadly, things get very real when hear directly from former traffickers who are incarcerated as they describe examples of live organ harvesting. In many of these cases, the organs come from poor migrant children.
The first example references a account of a trafficker named Turco operating in Venezuela, Mexico, and even the Philippines. Turco allegedly organizes the taking of poor children with their papers from encampments and shelters directly from families with the promise of reuniting them later in the U.S. Traffickers coerce poor, indigent families to hand over their children. Sadulski and Hopper interviewed a formerly incarcerated former trafficker who relayed the following interview about Turco’s organ trafficking operation. Please find the in-person interview below:
Sadulski and Hopper: “So you were telling me about selling children’s organs. Tell me what else I can include in here.”
Former Trafficker: “That’s something that’s that’s active like this, like a personal order, you know, like to make it like a like a custom order.”
Turco told the formerly incarcerated trafficker that that if he doesn’t take the child, another organ trafficker will. Turco said even his kids could be taken. Turco also gave the example of needing the money to fix his home. Please see the interview with a incarcerated former trafficker who spoke with Turco directly in the interview below:
Former Trafficker: (cont’d) Turco says, it could be HIS daughter or HIS son, you know. You know, it’s someone’s child. That is a heart that you don’t love your child. You let your child to wander out and someone will take her. You know, I asked him (Turco), how do you sleep well. He said, Because if I don’t do it, someone else will. And I’m like, wow, man. He’s serious, man.”
Former Trafficker: (cont’d) “Turco operated out of out of Venezuela and he operated out of Mexico. He was even in the Philippines. Yeah. He was in prison and deported back to Colombia.”
Sadulski and Hopper: “Okay. So what else did he say? Good information.”
Former Trafficker: “Well, in Colombia he said right now its ‘perro come perro’ you know ‘dog eat dog world.’ You know (referring to Turco’s words) it’s not something I’m proud of but I have to survive, you know? It was one of the means that came across to feed my family. I never look back, you know? ‘Cause I have no regrets. It’s what I do because it paid my family, you know?”
Sadulsky and Hopper: “Did he say how he would kidnap the kids?”
Former Trafficker: “He said he would…normally…frequent homeless places or he would frequent shelters, homeless encampments. So, he’s going into drug houses where families would camp with their kids. You know, he’d offer like so much thousand to take ’em out. He’s looking for a body part. Sadly, one kid was 12 years old and they took his right eye. Someone paid $15,000 for his eye. And he took the kid. He sold the kid.”
Former Trafficker: “I’m saying, Wow, in Mexico?! Like I said, moving the kid from one point to another point was easy. It was no problem at all. He didn’t have any problem with the police, nobody. He would show money and just pass right through.”
Former Trafficker: “Turco said he had no problems with resistance, because well, he had permission from the kid’s family so the kid was relaxed. Because they had permission from the kid’s parents and the kid was like, “this comes from mama, I am doing this for my family, so there was no sign that they were in any kind of trouble, everything was normal.”
Sadulski and Hopper: “So did they have to kill the kid?”
Former Trafficker: “I didn’t get that far with him but they did harvest his right eye, a twelve year old boy!”
The second example comes from another former trafficker who is still incarcerated whose family allegedly runs an organ harvesting operation in small city in Mexico. In this case, traffickers grab children from parks and schools, then transport them to veterinary clinics and other places around the city to surgically remove their organs. According to his account, the victims are put under anesthesia for the procedure. However, if they’re from rival gangs or cartels, adults might be snatched and undergo organ removal without anesthesia.
Sadulski and Hopper asked the trafficker whose family operates in a small city in Mexico what they do with the bodies after they remove the livers and other organs:
Sadulski and Hopper: “So what do you do with the bodies once you rip the organs out?”
Former Trafficker: “They organs are placed in coolers that you would put beer in. Then the bodies go in drums. We used to use acid to burn the bodies but now we use fuel, motor oil and fuel, because it burns hotter and disintegrates the bones so that there’s nothing left.“
Sadulski and Hopper: “How many people have you seen get placed into these barrels?”
Former Trafficker: “The numbers are too high to count. You want to sell.”
Sadulski and Hopper: “How often does this happen?”
Former Trafficker: “It’s happening on a daily basis in veterinary clinics and throughout my city.”
The High Demand for Live Organs
While this topic is difficult to digest, it is essential to face it in order to truly understand the issues we’re confronting at the border. Below is brief summary of the definitions that define transplant tourism and the trafficking of persons for the purpose of organ removal, excerpted from the American Society of Transplantation (AST).

Text excerpted from the American Society of Transplantation (AST)
It’s no wonder live donors are in such high demand. Organs like kidneys and livers are among the most valuable. According to an 2014 article from the New Internationalist, the lifespan of a live donor kidney is 15 to 20 years, compared to a kidney harvested from a deceased donor. At least 10,000 of the 70,000 kidneys donated that year came from trafficked donors, as reported in the article.

A 2019 article from the American Journal of Biomedical Science & Research titled “Organ Trafficking as a Criminological Problem” details the prices of illegally sold human organs. This article is also referenced in a 2019 Washington Times piece that highlights Sadulski’s work on the subject. The price range for organs on the black market varies signficantly, which helps explain why traffickers are so motivated to harvest them—organ trafficking is a highly lucrative business. According to the article, which cites data from Global Financial Integrity (2017), the cost of various organs are estimated as follows:
- Kidneys: Between $50,000 and $120,000. On average, 7,995 kidneys are removed annually.
- Livers: Between $99,000 and $145,000. Approximately 2,615 livers are removed per year.
- Hearts: Between $130,000 and $290,000. Around 654 illegal heart transplants occur annually.
- Lungs: Between $150,000 and $290,000. An estimated 469 illegal lung transplants take place each year.
- Pancreas: Between $110,000 and $140,000.
- Total Organ Trade: Annually, an estimated 11,966 organs are illegally removed, with a total value between $840 million and $1.7 billion.
In addition to the main organs listed above, other body parts are also trafficked:
- Corneas: $5,000 to $100,000
- Spinal Cord: $150,000 to $300,000
- Ova: $650 to $1,000
The price of organs varies depending on the donor’s age, health, and physical condition.
For a comprehensive understanding of the global organ harvesting and trafficking operations as well as the related supply chain operation, please reference the 2015 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Assessment Toolkit: “Trafficking in Persons for the Purpose of Organ Removal.”
*Please refer to an upcoming article number three in the series covering the exploitation of children and families by sex and labor traffickers.
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