A citizen of Israel wanted by Interpol on suspicion of organ trafficking was detained in Istanbul’s Ataturk airport on Friday, Turkish paper Today’s Zaman reported.
According to the report, the man, named as Boris Walker, was arrested on arrival from Bangkok.
Turkish police were said to have launched an investigation into Walker’s contacts in Istanbul.
Last year, a former soccer player for Hapoel Beersheba, Uzi Shmueli, was arrested in Cyprus on similar suspicions. Shmueli allegedly headed a crime ring that lured struggling young Israeli women, mostly from the south of the country, to Turkey and paid them NIS 20,000 (some $5,750) for a kidney.
In 2013, Israeli citizen Gedaliah Taub was detained in Rome on suspicion of human organ trafficking. He was detained at the city’s airport after officials determined his passport was forged.
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In the same year, an alleged organ trafficking ring was exposed by Costa Rican police. The ring also worked with Israeli doctors, according to Haaretz. The doctors had performed kidney-removal operations on some Costa Ricans who sold their organs, according to the paper.
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