A former Japanese criminal gang member said he was witness to China’s live organ trade, having seen an anesthetized Falun Gong adherent—with tendons cut to prevent his flight—shortly before the man was placed on an operating table to have his liver carved out.
That was 15 years ago in August 2008 when Ushio Sugawara, now 58, was still a member of the Sixth Yamaguchi-gumi—Japan’s largest crime syndicate.
His friend’s brother was desperate for a new liver to sustain his life. With strict regulations, high costs, and long waiting times in the United States and France—two of the few countries offering liver transplant surgeries at the time—the struggling patient turned to what appeared to be his only alternative: China….