Four Guatemalan doctors were arrested on Friday and charged with organ trafficking after removing a kidney from a patient without his consent, prosecutors said.
• Read also: A company authorized by Health Canada to sell cocaine
• Read also: Four Quebecers arrested during the dismantling of a major cocaine export network in Peru
The four doctors are “involved in the illegal removal of a kidney from a patient who had been given another diagnosis to justify the intervention,” spokesman for the Guatemalan prosecutor’s office Moises Ortiz told reporters.
The victim had filed a complaint in May 2022. Two of the doctors were arrested in the capital and two others in its surroundings, he said. They must appear on Friday before a judge who will notify them of their indictment, added the spokesperson for the prosecution.
The removal of the organ took place in the capital, but no other details can be provided “at this stage of the procedure”, he stressed.
Searches and seizures of evidence were carried out, and testimonies were collected as part of the investigation which established the presumed responsibility of the four doctors.