FBI Discounts Mexican Talk of Murders by Organ Traffickers

A Mexican Justice Department official's assertion that 14 women murdered in the border city of Ciudad Juarez were killed for their organs has been greeted with skepticism by U.S. FBI officials in El Paso.

Over the past decade, at least 91 young women have turned up dead in the desert outside Ciudad Juarez, and rumors have spread that gangs kidnapped 14 of the women to harvest their organs and sell them on the black market to people needing transplants in the United States.

"Several details support the idea that these women were killed to extract their organs and sell them," a Mexican Justice Department official said this week. "We're not saying this is the only line of investigation, but this is a probable one among many."

But FBI officials in El Paso, who are assisting in the investigation, said they are not aware of any evidence linking the murders to organ traffickers.

FBI Special Agent Art Werge said medical and forensic experts do not believe those responsible for the murders had the sophisticated equipment or surgical skills needed to properly harvest organs for transplant.

"It's not something where you can take an organ, put it in a plastic bag and take it to a hospital to sell it," Werge said.

Other Sources: Mexican Media, New York Daily News