Poles Charged With Selling Own Organs Online

Twenty-three people have been indicted in Poland for attempting to sell their own organs, mostly kidneys, over the Internet, national police headquarters said Friday.

"None of these people found a buyer. We found no evidence to indicate that," national police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski told Agence France Presse.

Recent reports suggest that economic hard times are seeing a rise in the number people offering their own organs for sale on the Internet across the globe.

According to Sokolowski, those charged in Poland came from "a variety of socio-economic backgrounds."

"I'm almost certain that in Poland there is no black market involving these types of sophisticated medical procedures which leave behind a great deal of evidence. It's too risky," he added.

Local media report that occasional online offers for kidneys have pegged a price of 100,000 zloty (24,000 euros, $29,000).

Poland's leading experts in human trafficking worked with 80 police departments across the country to coordinate the recent nationwide cyber-swoop, the largest ever of its kind to focus on organ trafficking.

Police detained people responsible for 250 online advertisements offering organs for sale, searched 95 premises and questioned 105 people, Sokolowski said.

Law enforcement authorities expect to make additional arrests within the framework of the ongoing investigation.

In Poland, offering organs for sale carries a prison term of up to one year.