Starting this week and lasting until November 30, hearings are taking place at the San José Criminal Court on the case of five men who are accused of illicit trafficking of human organs in Costa Rica.

The defendants are Mauro, Fonseca, Monge, Katsigiannis and Mora and are allegedly part of a transnational organization dedicated to human organ trafficking.

The men were arrested in 2013 in raids on a public hospital, two private clinics, three clinical laboratories, a doctor’s office, and a home, according to police reports.

The indictment by the public prosecutor was read Monday morning, September 11, in the first hearing of the trial. The crimes listed include illegal extraction of organs which caused serious injuries to 14 individuals.

Judges Lorena Blanco, Laura Sánchez, Irena Barrantes and Omar White are hearing the case in which  46 witnesses have been called to testify, 25 of whom were presented by public prosecutor.

The group appears to have sought out low-income individuals and offered them large sums of money, up to about US$17,500, in exchange for a kidney. Most recipients were Israelis most of whom who flew to Costa Rica for the transplants, but some of which had their donor flown to Israel, said police.

After compatibility tests were completed, preparations for the transplants were made and it seems the surgeries were performed in two Costa Rican private clinics.

The surgeon apparently leading the operation, Francisco Mora Palma, was the head of nephrology at the public Calderon Guardia Hospital at the time of the activities. It appear he used the public hospital for some of the testing and other procedures related to the organ transplants.

This is the first time a hearing on a case related to human organ trafficking has been held in Costa Rica.