Preying on the desperate

PETALING JAYA: Five months ago, theSun embarked on a sting to uncover an organ trafficking syndicate.
The operation took off several months after we monitored a Facebook page, ostensibly dedicated to the sale of human organs for transplants.
What we eventually "caught" however were people worse than those involved in the sale of organs.
Although it is legally and ethically wrong for people to buy and sell organs as it devalues a human's worth, organ traffickers would have delivered organs and helped to give the recipients a chance at living normally again.
But this group we uncovered, preyed on vulnerable families of the sick, who were desperately looking to buy organs to save their loved ones – without any intention to deliver.
They were confidence tricksters who cheated such vulnerable families of their savings with which they had hoped to heal their loved ones.
theSun had on April 28 carried a story about people desperate for cash being willing to sell their vital organs through Facebook where a search using key words such as "menderma buah pinggang" (kidney donation) garnered nearly 20,000 hits.
With the use of freshly created Facebook and email accounts as well as a pre-paid handphone account, our reporter went undercover and contacted the syndicate which claimed it could arrange organ transplants for a price.
Later, working with police officers from the Anti-Trafficking in Persons division of the Criminal Investigations Department, the reporter went to "negotiate" with the syndicate members on the pretext of needing to get a kidney for a cousin.
Negotiations stretched over four months included several meetings with syndicate members – a middleman named Hadi and the "kidney donor", a woman named Sya Liza, who had at one meeting in a restaurant, appeared to have several other men sitting close behind them at the meeting place.
Sya Liza claimed she wanted to donate her kidney for payment as she was financially strapped.
They had opened negotiations at RM150,000 with 75% up-front, with the deal to cover the organ donation and the transplant surgery.
Hadi explained that a document would be drawn up to claim that the donor and the patient were relatives, and that the entire situation must not show any element that a kidney was being sold because it's illegal.
When asked what if the blood groups of the donor and the patient do not match Hadi, who claimed to have arranged eight transplants, boasted it would not be a problem as the group had 20 to 30 more willing donors.
Following protracted negotiations during which our reporter claimed her family was not rich and could not afford to pay that much, the price was reduced to RM120,000 with 50% upfront, then RM90,000 and finally to RM70,000.
The RM70,000 was to be paid into a bank account number supplied by the middleman, with RM10,000 as deposit, and RM60,000 to be paid in just before the surgery.
At this point it hit us that there was a strong chance that the deal could be a con-game, because for all his glib talk, Hadi had been unable to show any proof or photographs of previous cases.
We then decided not to play by their rules to make the payment by banking into an account as they wanted, as we reasoned that once paid, the money could be transferred and Hadi would go missing.
A meeting was again arranged to finalise the arrangement for the transplant, during which the deposit of RM10,000 in cash was put on the table.
When asked why Sya Liza was not present, Hadi who turned up with another man, claimed "she had already donated her kidney to another patient".
He, however, took the RM10,000 from the table, assuring our reporter and an undercover police officer, who was posing as her cousin, the patient, that another donor with matching blood group would be made available.
Soon after, detectives keeping surveillance on the sting arrested Hadi and his accomplice who were later remanded for 10 days.
We are given to understand that investigations showed that the Hadi and his accomplices were involved in an elaborate con to fleece people in desperate need of organ transplants, and anyone who may have been cheated in this way should lodge a police report.
Police have completed investigations and referred the investigation papers to the deputy public prosecutor for advice and direction.
We recently learnt to our disappointment that the DPP has decided that there is no case, whether for human trafficking or cheating under section 420 of the Penal Code to charge the suspects, and has instructed the investigating officer to close the case.
Has our reporter risked her life and limb in vain?
It certainly makes one wonder how often the hard work put in by capable police officers who often stake their lives going undercover, end in the same way.
Is this why crimes like cheating continue to be on the increase?