Guatemalan security forces, with the support of the United States, arrested four doctors accused of organ trafficking yesterday after they allegedly removed a kidney without their consent during a surgical operation, the Prosecutor’s Office reported.
The four doctors are “related to the illegal extraction of a kidney from a patient who was given another diagnosis to justify the intervention,” the entity’s spokesman, Moisés Ortiz, told reporters.
In a first statement, the official had announced the arrest of three doctors. Later, he reported the arrest of a fourth professional in an area on the southern outskirts of the capital.
The other three apprehensions were made in the capital with the help of the US Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Ortiz said.
Ortiz clarified that the four arrests were in Guatemala City and none in Amatitlán, near the south of the capital, as stated at the beginning.
The four doctors, two urologists, a surgeon and a pathologist, were referred before a judge to notify them of the reasons for their detention. At the end of the appointment, the magistrate granted them probation and set the first statement hearing for March 14. The four doctors are accused of illegal disposition of human organs or tissues.