Polish border authorities apprehended a Ukrainian woman who received a 12-year prison sentence in Kazakhstan for her involvement in an organized criminal group that trafficked human organs, including the sale of 56 kidneys, prosecutors reported on Tuesday.
The 35-year-old, identified only as Ksenia P. in accordance with Polish privacy regulations, was arrested at a railway crossing between Poland and Ukraine under an Interpol red notice, as stated by Marta Petkowska, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office in Przemysl.
The prosecutors did not clarify why the woman was not serving her sentence in Kazakhstan at the time of her arrest or during her conviction.
She has been on Interpol’s wanted list since November 2020. An Interpol red notice serves as a request to law enforcement agencies worldwide to provisionally detain an individual pending extradition or similar legal proceedings.
According to Petkowska, the woman was convicted for her role in an international organized crime syndicate that illicitly harvested tissues and organs from individuals between 2017 and 2019, selling them on the black market.
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She was also found guilty of unlawfully acquiring kidneys from 56 victims across Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Thailand for financial gain, effectively turning these crimes into a consistent source of income.
The prosecution has filed a request with the court for a one-week temporary detention to facilitate her extradition to Kazakhstan.
