Breaking up the largest surrogacy and human organ trafficking case in the Central region

On the afternoon of November 10, a representative of the Thua Thien - Hue Provincial Police said that the unit's forces had just successfully broken up a case of organizing surrogacy and trading human tissues and organs. According to the Investigation Agency of the Thua Thien - Hue Provincial Police, this is the largest case of organizing surrogacy in the Central - Central Highlands region and trading human tissues and organs nationwide.

Regarding this case, Thua Thien - Hue Provincial Police decided to prosecute the case, prosecute the accused, and temporarily detain 5 related people.

According to a representative of the Thua Thien - Hue Provincial Police, previously, through the work of grasping the situation on cyberspace, the Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention of the Thua Thien - Hue Provincial Police discovered on the Facebook group for surrogacy and finding surrogates, egg donations in Saigon - Hue - Hanoi, a series of articles related to surrogacy and organ trafficking appeared.

Some people in the group posted many articles offering services but did not leave contact information, only contacting by private message.

Realizing the complexity of the case, the Board of Directors of Thua Thien - Hue Provincial Police directed the Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention to coordinate with professional units to urgently verify and investigate.

The police identified a group of people including Truong Thi Thuy Trinh (born in 1993, residing in Binh Thuan province); Tran Tuan Anh (born in 1992, residing in Ha Nam province) and Tran Viet Thanh (born in 1996, residing in Bac Can province) who rented an apartment at Nera apartment building (An Dong ward, Hue city) to live.

This group of people regularly advertises in online groups to reach people in need, contact and discuss issues with infertile families. Each surrogacy costs about 450-600 million VND, egg donation costs about 25 million VND, kidney transplant costs about 900-1 billion 450 million VND.

The selection of surrogates and egg donors often includes requirements regarding health, appearance, and age. This is a group of people who operate in many sophisticated forms, with a nationwide scope of activities.

Regarding surrogacy activities, Truong Thi Thuy Trinh is the leader, with the most prestige in completing procedures to qualify for surrogacy in the Central Highlands region. Through the process of monitoring and collecting documents, the police determined that Trinh and Tran Viet Thanh organized surrogacy for many individuals nationwide.

In Thua Thien - Hue alone, on May 29, Trinh organized a successful surrogacy case, the surrogate mother gave birth to a baby boy at Hue Central Hospital with a total contract agreement of 200 million VND.

At the time of solving the case, the police also discovered that Trinh rented room 908 - C1 of Xuan Phu apartment building (Xuan Phu ward, Hue city) to take care of two pregnant women.

Regarding the organization of kidney trading, through investigation, the police discovered that Tran Tuan Anh and Tran Viet Thanh organized kidney trading in Thua Thien - Hue province. Through investigation, since 2018, Tuan Anh went to Hue Central Hospital to look for patients in need of kidney transplants, leaving his phone number and advertising the price of a kidney from 800 million to 1.3 billion VND.

After that, Tuan Anh found people who wanted to sell their kidneys through an intermediary named Tran Viet Thanh. For each successful kidney sale, Tuan Anh paid Thanh from 100 million to 110 million VND. From 2018 to present, Tran Tuan Anh has organized 8 kidney transplants at Hue Central Hospital, of which 4 were successful.

In addition, in this case, the police force also discovered a group of 2 people, Nguyen Thi Thu Ha (born in 1986, residing in Quang Binh) and Nguyen Van Ninh (born in 1998, residing in My Xuyen district, Soc Trang province). Since July 2020, Ha and Ninh have been living together as husband and wife on Ba Trieu Street (Hue City). Both went to Hue Central Hospital to find people in need of kidney transplants to broker kidney buying and selling. Each kidney transplant costs from 900 million to 1.3 billion VND.

Of the above amount, the donor received 450 million, the costs related to medical examination and treatment, surgery, feeding, etc. were about 450 million. After deducting the expenses, Ha and Ninh earned about 100 million VND for each successful kidney transplant brokerage case.

From 2020 to present, Nguyen Thi Thu Ha has brokered about 18 cases, including 3 successful kidney transplant surgeries. Ninh alone successfully brokered 5 kidney transplants, and Ninh assisted Ha in successfully brokering 1 case.

Currently, the Investigation Agency of Thua Thien - Hue Provincial Police has decided to prosecute the case and prosecute the accused Truong Thi Thuy Trinh and Nguyen Viet Thanh for "Crime of surrogacy for commercial purposes" under Article 187 of the Penal Code. Prosecuted 4 accused Nguyen Anh Tuan, Tran Viet Thanh, Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, Nguyen Van Ninh for "Crime of buying, selling, appropriating human tissues or body parts" under Article 154 of the Penal Code.