International organ trafficking scheme has transplant community scrambling.

An international organ trafficking scheme involving donors from Brazil, transplants performed in South Africa, and an Israeli-led organ ring was exposed in early December. To date police in South Africa and Brazil have arrested 14 people in the trans-Atlantic organ buying and selling scheme, including a 42-year-old Israeli man who had received a purchased kidney just 5 days earlier.

South African police moved quickly and a British man accused of helping run the international ring was sentenced to 6 years in jail, 5 years suspended, for his role in the scheme. Roderick Frank Kimberly turned himself in after he was informed a warrant for his arrest had been issued for violating the country's Human Tissue Act. He was also fined R250,000 (about $40,000) on 78 counts, 38 of which fell under the Human Tissue Act.

Kimberly confessed to being a go-between in the syndicate's activities and signed an agreement to provide additional information on the network's operations.

Other members of the suspected syndicate have appeared in court and released on bail.

According to a report in the New York Times, the ring operated in poor neighborhoods in Brazil seeking people willing to sell their kidneys. Those who agreed were flown to South Africa where the transplants were performed at St. Augustine's Hospital, a prestigious 100-year-old medical center run by Netcare, a well-regarded chain of private hospitals and clinics.

Initial reports indicated at least 30 Brazilians donated kidneys in exchange for up to $10,000, passports and a free trip to Durban, SA where the hospital is located. Recipients were charged up to $120,000, the Star newspaper in Johannesburg reported.

Netcare issued a statement following the arrests saying the company had been assisting in the police investigation and hospital officials had not known of any illegal organ trafficking between donors and recipients.

Kimberley disputed the notion that doctors at the hospital didn't know of the operation and said more than 80 kidney transplants had been done within the past 2 years by the syndicate, a Durban television station reported.

Mary Martins-Engelbrecht, South Africa senior police superintendent confirmed on December 7 that various medical professionals and hospitals in different regions of the country and countries in addition to Brazil, South Africa and Israel were under investigation as possible participants in the scheme.