Dozens of prominent politicians, rabbis and officials have been arrested in New Jersey

[Emit]

New Jersey FBI sting nets 44 officials, including mayor, rabbis, regulatory inspectors
44 held, including man accused of selling body parts

By Geraldine Baum

Tribune Newspapers

July 24, 2009

NEW YORK -- People who live in New Jersey can be forgiven if they initially yawned Thursday morning at the news of yet another federal sting that swept up a wide range of public officials, including the Hoboken mayor who's been on the job all of three weeks.

They might even have shrugged at the report that five rabbis were also snared on allegations they washed $3 million through an international money-laundering ring.

But body parts?

This is Round 3 in a series of New Jersey corruption investigations that has spanned a decade and taken down more than 100 people, half of them government officials involved in money-for-access schemes.

But the trajectory of this latest probe seemed to impress even experienced investigators who, in the course of tracking mayors taking cash in diners and rabbis depositing untraceable money into the accounts of their charities, stumbled upon Levy Izhak Rosenbaum -- allegedly selling human kidneys.

Rosenbaum, a Brooklyn businessman, is accused of buying kidneys for $10,000 apiece from donors in Israel and then selling them to U.S. transplant recipients for $160,000, according to a federal complaint.

"I am what you call a matchmaker," Rosenbaum told undercover agents, noting he'd been marketing kidneys illegally for 10 years, the complaint said.

~snip~

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-njcorruptionjul24,0,4499123.story

July 25, 2009
Scores held in US corruption probe
Dozens of prominent politicians, rabbis and officials have been arrested in the US state of New Jersey

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4043

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. Now that's what I call *ORGANized* crime!!!

Get it? ORGAN-ized?
As in... they were dealing with organs on the black market.

[Ian David]

6. One organ. They tried to buy ONE kidney. n/t

[Warpy]

2. The window for kidney donation is about 24 hours

so it had to be extremely well organized to come up with a match in Israel, harvest the organ, and transport it to NY/NJ for transplant.

I'd also like to know how they managed to bypass the organ/tissue bank people.

I guess the latter is how they finally got caught.

[DeadEyeDyck]

3. How did they get the kidney to Israel so quickly?

They did not check the kidney container at the airport.

it was brought aboard as carrion luggage.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. LOL

[FarCenter]

14. The kidney donor would travel from Israel to the US and the operations would be done here

No info yet on the medical centers where the surgeries were being done, or on who the surgeons were.

In the transcript Levy Izhak Rosenbaum refers to having done one a couple of weeks before. I'm betting that the donors are either poor immigrant Jews, Israeli Arabs, or Palestinians. There is a reference to a "language problem" when dealing with the donors.

[Gwendolyn]

23. Sorry, didn't see your post before I replied.

:blush:

[Gwendolyn]

22. You fly the poor person selling his/her organs into the States.

You find a doctor willing to exchange large sums of cash for his surgical expertise on the DL.

Voila. Someone who lives on the other side of the world gets to feed their family for years, and some wealthy American (or desperate American with a network) gets a kidney. Middle men make hunks 'a dough.

That's one way of doing it.

[fascisthunter]

4. sick people always find a way into positions of authority and power

time to start screening candidates for high position jobs. If they are sociopaths, they should be banned from ever taking a high position ANYWHERE!

I figured our funding was enough for Israel, but this, this is sick. What other countries benefit from this shit!

[Fumesucker]

5. All governments suffer a recurring problem:

Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. -Frank Herbert

[fascisthunter]

8. great Quote... couldn't agree more

[Odin2005]

9. That's why the proper question of political philosophy is not "Who should rule?", but instead...

...be "How do we structure our governmental institutions in order to prevent bad rulers from doing damage?".

It doesn't matter whether it's The Well Born, The Rich, The Strong, The Good, The People, or The Proletariat that rule. The question "who should rule" is an authoritarian question giving an authoritarian answer. Governmental power is like the One Ring on the Lord of the Rings.

[Fumesucker]

10. The One Ring..

It's interesting that you should use that metaphor.. Frodo was chosen as the Ring Bearer because he was someone that really didn't desire power.

We make the mistake of giving power to those who most desperately want it.

I personally think the best leader would be someone like Frodo, who basically has to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to the job.

[Odin2005]

13. Like George Washington.

He wanted nothing more than to go back home to Virginia.

[Ian David]

7. Always about Israel with you, isn't it? Putting you on ignore. n/t

[flyarm]

12. all but one was a democrat!...and they were also selling counterfeit Gucci Purses.

they were either selling or manufacturing ( sorry i forget) Gucci Purses.

One Republican (from my county) was arrested, the rest were dems.

[mcctatas]

15. were the fake Gucci's made out of trafficked organs?

now THAT would be a story :hide:

[flyarm]

18. sad we have to find our humor that way ..isn't it? eom

[noamnety]

16. Ha! I suspected that

because when I first heard about it, I scanned DU for more info and found almost nothing. :D

[UndertheOcean]

17. This makes New-Jersey sound like a scary place

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. This makes New Jersey a place that gives Democrats a bad name.

[starroute]

21. "In Jersey anything's legal as long as you don't get caught"

Classic line from "Tweeter and the Monkey Man." Never more true.

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/t/travelling+wilburys/tweeter+the+monkey+man_20140469.html

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. Every state could use a similar purging, if you ask me.

[Yuugal]

24. Which exit did it happen near? nt