How Social Media and Crypto Help Organ Traffickers

Heart valves, skin, corneas, a middle ear: These are just some of the human organs that are being advertised for sale in clandestine social media groups, with potential buyers offered body parts of their choice in exchange for thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency, a Newsweek investigation reveals.

Newsweek has infiltrated groups on the social media platform Telegram, purporting to sell a range of organs from so-called donors in what is a lesser-known human trafficking trend that flouts federal law.

The illicit sale of organs takes place either through trafficking human beings for the intent of organ removal, wherein people are coerced or exploited and trafficked before donating organs, or through organ trafficking—the illegal handling of organs, which includes selling them or advertising an intent to buy or sell them.

According to a U.S. Department of State 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report, kidneys are the most commonly trafficked organ and victims of trafficking, mostly refugee men aged 30, according to the the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), are often told that their kidneys will grow back or that there will be no side effects to organ donation.

Meanwhile, the UNODC estimates there were around 700 victims of trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal between 2008 and 2022 but that the scale of the problem is not known, and is likely to be much larger. In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 10,000 kidneys are traded annually on the black market.

Underground network of organ sellers

One group Newsweek found called “kidney organ for sale USA” is a forum of people who claim to want to sell or buy organs, using the group as an intermediary.

Mel Luten, who runs the group and claims to be a doctor based in California, told Newsweek that he started his business a year ago to “help those who have been suffering from issues like heart failures or kidney failures.”

He said he’s recruited a team of 20 worldwide surgeons who take donations and oversee transplants from people who pay in cryptocurrency.

“We have a team of professional surgeons who remove and do the transplant in our clinic or overseas,” he told Newsweek over Telegram.

He said that he sold organs with “100 percent discreet packaging and safe shipping worldwide.” He owns machines that can keep organs fresh for a year.

He’s aware that his group is illegal, adding that “we do safe life’s [sic] on a daily basis.”

Screenshots sent to Newsweek by Luten appear to show crypto bank balances of $11 million and $5 million (USD) across two accounts. He provided messages he claimed were from donors and organ recipients he did business with.

Another group appearing to capitalize on this market, uncovered by Newsweek and aptly named “organs trafficking humanparts bodyparts for sale,” instructs interested punters to make payments in Bitcoin to receive organs from a menu boasting an array of options from lungs, priced at $10,800, to bone marrow for $1,500. The group has 1,044 subscribers.

A third group with 781 subscribers called “sell, buy kidney” describes itself as “the largest shopping center for kidney, liver, bone marrow.”

It requests payments via TRC20, cryptocurrency issued by the firm Tether.

A Tether spokesperson told Newsweek: “Unlike fiat, with Tether every action is online, every action is traceable, every asset can be seized, and every criminal can be caught. We work with law enforcement to do exactly that.”

A Telegram spokesperson told Newsweek: “Since its creation, Telegram has actively moderated harmful content on its platform. Telegram moderators use a combination of proactive monitoring of public parts of the platform and user reports in order to remove millions of pieces of content each day that breach Telegram’s terms of service.”

Newsweek also contacted Bitcoin and the Department of Justice through their respective website…