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Yakuza proposes sale of internal organ of homeless man

Shigemasa Kamenai, Akira Yoshida and Yuichi Mae
Shigemasa Kamenai, left, Akira Yoshida, center, and Yuichi Mae (Twitter)

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Monday announced the intent to arrest a member of an organized crime group and two other suspects for plotting to illegally sell an internal organ, reports TBS News (July 21).

Between December of 2013 and April of this year, Akira Yoshida, a 71-year-old member of the Sumiyoshi-kai and Shigemasa Kamenai, a 66-year-old former member of the same gang, exchanged messages to broker the sale of a kidney belonging to 44-year-old homeless male Yuichi Mae.

The group speculated that the organ could fetch two million yen.

In order to facilitate the granting of permission for the procedure required for living donors under the law, Mae was falsely registered at a government office as the adopted child of Kamenai.

The matter came to light after Mae consulted with police about the plan prior to the surgery. The removal of his kidney never took place.

Police plan to arrest the suspects on Tuesday for violating the Organ Transplant Law.

Police are now investigating whether Yoshida has been involved in a number of similar cases in the past.