Police in Thua Thien Hue Province, central Vietnam said on Friday that they had cracked down on a surrogacy and organ trafficking ring, the largest of its kind in the region so far.

The police detected a host of posts linked to surrogacy and organ trade being featured in a Facebook group on providing surrogate services and seeking surrogate mothers, egg donors in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Hue City under Thua Thien Hue Province.

Many authors of such posts did not leave their contact information but asked those interested in the services to send them direct messages.

The forces discovered that a group of three suspects often promoted surrogate services in this group and other ones to approach potential customers.

They included Truong Thi Thuy Trinh, 30, from south-central Binh Thuan Province; Tran Tuan Anh, 31, a native of northern Ha Nam Province; and Tran Viet Thanh, 27, from northern Bac Kan Province. They live in a rented Nera apartment in Hue City.

Each surrogate case cost VND450-600 million (US$18,390-24,520), each egg donation case at around VND25 million ($1,020), and each kidney transplant case at between VND900 million ($36,788) and VND1.45 billion ($59,260).

Truong Thi Thuy Trinh and Tran Viet Thanh were found to have provided surrogate services to many individuals nationwide.

In Thua Thien Hue alone, Trinh successfully arranged a surrogate case on May 29 this year. The surrogate mother gave birth to a baby boy at Hue Central Hospital under a surrogate contract valued at VND200 million ($8,175).

The police also discovered that Trinh rented a Xuan Phu apartment in Hue City to house two surrogate mothers.

Tran Tuan Anh (R) is at a police station. He was accused of trafficking kidneys. Photo: Quoc Anh / Tuoi Tre

Besides, Tran Tuan Anh and Tran Viet Thanh were found to have got involved in a kidney trafficking ring in Thua Thien Hue.

Anh began visiting the Hue Central Hospital from 2018 to seek patients in need of kidney transplants, leaving his phone number and offering each kidney at between VND800 million ($32,740) and VND1.3 billion ($53,200).

Anh searched for kidney sellers via Thanh as a broker, with the latter getting paid VND100-110 million ($4,000-4,500) for each kidney sold.

Since 2018, Anh had managed to arrange eight kidney transplants at the hospital, with four cases deemed successful.

The police also discovered that another group of two people took part in human organ sales.

The duo, identified as Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, 37, from central Quang Binh Province and Nguyen Van Ninh, 25, from southern Soc Trang Province, had cohabited with each other since July 2020 in Hue City.

They charged between VND900 million ($36,800) and VND1.3 billion ($53,140) for each kidney transplant.

Of the total, the kidney donor received VND450 million ($18,400), while other medical expenses were some VND450 million.

The duo pocketed some VND100 million ($4,000) after each kidney transplant was done.

Since 2020, Ha and Ninh had offered human organ transplantation services to 18 individuals and managed to arrange a combined nine kidney transplants.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!