FBI shining light on Clintons' ties to Kosher Nostra by Wayne Madsen Report

FBI shining light on Clintons' ties to Kosher Nostra by Wayne Madsen Report
In releasing 129 heavily-redacted pages from its file on the William J. Clinton Foundation and the late fugitive businessman Marc Rich, who was believed by many in law enforcement to have been a major asset of Israel's Mossad and Russian-Israeli-Ukrainian organized crime, the FBI has partially-illuminated the shady world of the Clintons' ties to the international underworld. In the remaining few hours of his administration in 
January 2001, Bill Clinton pardoned Rich, who was living in Switzerland under a federal arrest warrant. The pardon came after Marc Rich's estranged wife, Denise Rich, donated more than $1 million to Hillary Clinton's New York U.S. Senate campaign and a half million dollars to the Clinton Library Foundation. 

The cash-for-pardon deal was worked out by Marc Rich's attorney I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and deputy Attorney General Eric Holder. Libby was convicted in 2007 of four counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements in the matter of releasing the identity of CIA clandestine officer Valerie Plame Wilson. Holder became Barack Obama's first Attorney General. Holder, unsurprisingly, has been at the forefront of the public condemnation of the FBI's recent transparency in criminal investigations relating to the Clintons.


FBI file on Marc Rich and Bill Clinton submitted to a federal grand jury in 2001

Rich's ties to Russian Jewish gangsters was legendary. Via the accounts of Russian fugitive Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Menatep Bank's Clearstream accounts in Luxembourg, Rich and Khodorkovsky donated cash into the political campaign coffers of a number of pro-Israeli politicians, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Khodorkovsky, since leaving Russia after serving a prison term for tax evasion and fraud, has been at the forefront of an international effort to topple Russian President Vladimir Putin from power. There is little doubt that Hillary Clinton's invective against Putin are influenced by her and her husband's longstanding ties to Russian Kosher Nostra figures like Khodorkovsky; Leonid Nevzlin, who is living in exile in Israel; Platon Lebedev, a convicted criminal; and their backers, who include hedge fund mogul George Soros.

Menatep was linked to a number of Russian-Israeli mafiosi figures, including Semyon Mogilevich, once considered to be the most dangerous "Kosher Nostra" crime boss in the world. In January 2007, Yuri Golubev, a Khodorkovsky business partner, died in London under what Russian prosecutors believed were suspicious circumstances. Dead bodies appear to trail the Clinton crime network far from the confines of Arkansas. The FBI also recently released its report on the 1993 death of Bill Clinton's longtime friend, Rose law firm partner of Hillary Clinton, and deputy White House counsel Vince Foster.It should be noted that the 1992 Vince Foster "suicide" was among the very first stories ever investigated by this editor, the other being the 1991 "suicide" of journalist Danny Casolaro.

In addition to Rich, Clinton also pardoned another Kosher Nostra figure, Pincus "Pinky" Green. Green and Rich fled the United States in 1983 after being indicted by then-U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani for tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran.

The FBI file states that U.S. Pardon Attorney testified that "none of the regular procedures were followed" by the Justice Department and White House in the eleventh hour pardons of Rich and Green. The FBI intimates that a dubious deal was worked out between Holder and another one of Rich's attorneys, Jack Quinn, a former White House counsel for Clinton and chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore.

A February 19, 2001 FBI memo to the bureau's Public Corruption Unit cited "William J. Clinton - Former U.S. President," "Marc Rich - Fugitive," and others as being the subjects of the FBI's criminal probe of selling a presidential pardon for a cash infusion to the Clinton Library Foundation and Mrs. Clinton's Senate campaign.


FBI memo on public corruption investigation of Bill Clinton, Marc Rich, and "others." "Others" may have included Hillary Clinton, who received a million dollar donation from Marc Rich's ex-wife, Denise Rich; and former deputy Attorney General Eric Holder.
A March 6, 2001, FBI memo confirms that the bureau's investigation of Clinton and Rich was bolstered by an "anonymous complainant" from Switzerland. In addition to the New York FBI Field Office's public corruption squad's "war room," FBI offices in Baltimore and Sacramento and the resident agent office in White Plains, New York, as well as the Legal Attaché offices in London and Bern, were also involved in the investigation of Clinton and Rich.

Clarification. Kosher Nostra article

WMR ran the article titled: "North Jersey: epicenter of "Kosher Nostra" and Mossad activity" on July 27, 2009. The following paragraph represents a correction [bold segment] to the original report about the disposition of the criminal case brought against Ted Maher, a former US Green Beret, in the 1999 death of banker Edmond Safra in Monaco:

"Another prominent Syrian Jew was Edmond Safra who founded Banco Safra in Brazil in 1955. The Beirut-based Safra family had long served as important bankers for the Ottoman Empire. Safra eventually became a billionaire banking and investment tycoon. Safra founded the Republic National Bank in New York in 1966. In 1999, Safra was killed in an arson attack on his Monte Carlo home. Safra's U.S.-born nurse, Ted Maher, a former U.S. Army Green Beret, was arrested and charged with starting the fire, convicted and released after serving a prison sentence. Safra's killer or killers still remain at large. Safra's security chief, Shmuile Cohen, had recruited a number of Israeli military special forces personnel to guard Safra, but Shmule and the guards were given the night off by Safra's wife. Before his death, Safra was negotiating the sale of Republic Bank to HSBC. Safra was also cooperating with the FBI in its probe of the use of U.S. banks by the Russian-Israeli mafia to launder billions of dollars. There is speculation that Safra was murdered by the Russian-Israeli mob to keep him from divulging more details of their operations to the FBI."

In our initial report, we indicated that Maher's conviction was later overturned. The Safra Foundation publicist correctly stated the following in an email (as far as only the Maher matter is concerned):

"The information about Mr. Safra’s nurse, Ted Maher, is misleading. In fact, Mr. Maher was arrested under suspicion of starting the fire in which Mr. Safra died and was convicted of the crime in 2002 by the Monaco court. Ted Maher’s conviction was not 'overturned'. The court found him guilty and sentenced him to a prison term, which was served. There has been no further court inquiry into this case, let alone an 'overturning” of it.'"

Our clarification and correction has been sent to the publicist for the Edmond J. Safra
Foundation in France.

However, WMR currently stands by the remainder of the information contained in the relevant paragraph and the following was sent to the Safra Foundation's publicist:

"However, there are enough media reports since the time of Mr. Safra's death to strongly indicate there is much more to the story than Maher's confession. For example, the following from the NY Daily News, Dec 4 02: 'The lawsuit, filed Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court by Torrente's children, Jason, 30, and Genevieve, 23, charges that Safra, 67, 'restrained' [Viviane] Torrente [their mother and Safra's nurse] and 'prevented her escape' from the bathroom where they suffocated.'

As for Maher being a sole perpetrator, that is not what the Monaco police reported to Mr. Safra's own security chief. From AFP on November 26, 2002: 'The security chief of billionaire banker Edmond Safra was handcuffed by police as he tried to get into the penthouse apartment where his boss was suffocating to death, a court trying Safra's American nurse on arson charges was told Tuesday. Samuel Cohen told the court in the exclusive Mediterranean principality of Monaco that he was called to Safra's building at 5.00 a.m. on December 3 1999, but when he demanded to be allowed to up the burning apartment to find a way in -- arguing that he alone knew the security arrangements -- he was stopped by police. 'They told me that there were assailants there. I kept insisting, and it went on for 30 minutes,' Cohensaid, before describing how when he finally made it to the fifth floor he was overpowered and handcuffed.' It is noteworthy that Cohen said the police said there 'were assailants [plural]' in Safra's Monaco apartment. That would indicate that if Maher was guilty as charged, he may have had at least one accomplice.

And AFP ran this on Dec, 4 1999: 'Safra normally surrounded himself with bodyguards in his heavily protected Monaco penthouse, but this was not the case on the night of the attack.' That conflicts with your statement: 'There were never any security guards of any kind guarding the apartment in Monaco - neither that night nor any other night.' Has AFP retracted?

It is well documented that Mr Safra was cooperating with the FBI in an investigation of Russian Jewish mafia involvement with his competitor, the Bank of New York (BONY). Feb 7 2000 Times of London: 'In the days after his death rumours abounded that his killers were the Russian mafia, incensed by Safra's co-operation with the FBI,which was investigating mafia money-laundering through Safra's New York-based Republic National Bank. . . Safra's fear was well-founded. He had, in effect, signed his own death warrant five years ago, when Republic National Bank first alerted the FBI to a Pounds 6 billion money-laundering racket: the Russian mafia was thought to have been transferring cash from offshore bank accounts into dollar accounts at Safra's bank. And when, last October, Safra froze the bank accounts of most of his Russian clients in preparation for selling his bank to HSBC, scores of Russians lost everything. One Russian businessman suspected of mafia links has told friends that Safra's actions cost him $ 30 million.'

Based on the other available information, I see no need to change any other part of the paragraph in question unless there is some further documentation that shows the Monaco police were incorrect in their initial assessment of the situation and that the FBI was not investigating Russian Jewish money laundering through Republic National Bank and related activity at BONY. You'll note that no where in the article is it stated that Mr Safra had 'dealings' with the Mafia and to the contrary it specifically states: 'Safra was also cooperating with the FBI in its probe of the use of U.S. banks by the Russian-Israeli mafia to launder billions of dollars.' The statement does not assert that Mr. Safra was any subject himself of an FBI investigation but was cooperating in an investigation of the use of banks by the Russian-Israeli mob for money laundering."

North Jersey: epicenter of "Kosher Nostra" and Mossad activity

The recent rolling up of a Syrian Jewish criminal syndicate that was involved in buying off local elected and appointed government officials in north Jersey is but one in a long series of law enforcement operations directed, sometimes unsuccessfully due to the immense power of the Israel Lobby in the United States, against Jewish criminal networks in the New Jersey-New York region. These criminal networks also have one important thing in common: close connections to Israeli politicians and businessmen.

The FBI used a confidential witness to identify a number of Syrian Jewish rabbis who were using synagogues and yeshivas as money laundering fronts reportedly for the illegal sale of knock-off designer hand bags and even human organs. The witness, Solomon Dwek, is a major real estate developer and gambling boat owner who was arrested in 2006 for trying to pass a bad check and defraud PNC Bank of $25 million. Dwek is a member of the powerful Syrian Jewish clan in New Jersey and New York, which has been called the SY Empire" and the "Dwek clan."

Dwek's father, Isaac Dwek, is a rabbi of a synagogue and yeshiva school in the Syrian Jewish enclave of Deal, New Jersey, on the Jersey shore. Deal is a nexus for the radical Israeli right that is opposed to any peace agreement with the Palestinians and the ultra-orthodox Israeli Shas Party, a member of the current Israeli coalition government, has held fundraisers in Deal. The Syrian Jewish community is also heavily involved in worldwide Chabad Houses, which WMR has previously linked to drug smuggling and money laundering, particularly in Mumbai, Bangkok, and other Asian cities. In 1992, the Syrian government lifted travel restrictions and limits on the disposition of property for the Syrian Jewish community. Syrian Jews were relatively free to travel, including to the United States.

Among the rabbis arrested was Saul Kassin, the 87-year-old chief rabbi of the 80,000-member Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn and New Jersey. Rabbis from Brooklyn and Deal were also arrested for money laundering operations that used the tax-exempt status of Jewish religious organizations to avoid detection and reporting to the government.

The mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus, and Ridgefield were also arrested as part of the bribery probe of the Syrian Jewish syndicate, as well as a Jersey City state assemblyman and an Ocean Township mayor and assemblyman. A member of New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine's cabinet was also arrested, along with appointed officials in Bayonne, Hoboken, and Jersey City.

The latest reported criminal activity among the region's Syrian Jewish community is nothing new. One prominent member of the community, which traces its origins back to the Syrian city of Aleppo, was Eddie Antar, the owner of a regional chain of consumer electronics stories called "Crazy Eddie's," fled the United States for Israel after being indicted for fraud. Antar had laundered some $80 million through Panamanian and Israeli banks, much of it ending up at the Bank Leumi in Tel Aviv, Swiss banks, a "folding tent" Liberian company, and a Liechtenstein foundation. Antar used a fake passport and the alias of David Jacob Levi Cohen to enter Israel. Antar also used the alias of Alexander Stewart. Antar was eventually arrested near Tel Aviv and was extradited back to the United States where he eventually received an eight-year prison sentence. The chief federal prosecutor against Antar was Michael Chertoff.

Syrian-Jewish businessman Norman Jemal, the head of another influential Syrian-Jewish family and a consumer electronics competitor of Crazy Eddie, saw his store chain Nobody Beats the Wiz, collapse into bankruptcy in 2003.

Another prominent Syrian Jew was Edmond Safra who founded Banco Safra in Brazil in 1955. The Beirut-based Safra family had long served as important bankers for the Ottoman Empire. Safra eventually became a billionaire banking and investment tycoon. Safra founded the Republic National Bank in New York in 1966. In 1999, Safra was killed in an arson attack on his Monte Carlo home. Safra's U.S.-born nurse, Ted Maher, a former U.S. Army Green Beret, was arrested and charged with starting the fire but his conviction was overturned. Safra's killer or killers still remain at large. Safra's security chief, Shmuile Cohen, had recruited a number of Israeli military special forces personnel to guard Safra, but Shmule and the guards were given the night off by Safra's wife. Before his death, Safra was negotiating the sale of Republic Bank to HSBC. Safra was also cooperating with the FBI in its probe of the use of U.S. banks by the Russian-Israeli mafia to launder billions of dollars. There is speculation that Safra was murdered by the Russian-Israeli mob to keep him from divulging more details of their operations to the FBI.

After the recent bust of prominent Syrian-Jews in New Jersey and New York, the FBI and Justice Department revealed their investigation had lasted for ten years. The Safra murder occurred ten years prior to the recent corruption arrests. WMR has learned that the FBI is actually probing a much bigger criminal syndicate, one that involves more powerful politicians and businessmen involved in real estate and financial services in New York and New Jersey. The arrest of mayors, other small-time politicians, and rabbis may lead to higher-ups if there is cooperation from those already arrested from plea deals with prosecutors.

One prominent member of the Syrian Jewish community is Joseph Cayre, the real estate business partner of Larry Silverstein and Lloyd Goldman in the pre-9/11 lease of the World Trade Center from the New York-New Jersey Port Authority and the subsequent re-development of the "Ground Zero" site. Silverstein, Cayre, Goldman, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg have recently been feuding with the Port Authority over the terms of the re-development scheme. Part of the re-development strategy is central to the "Cornerstones Project," a project to establish for mega-entertainment and sports complexes in Manhattan connected to two other such centers on Coney Island and at the Meadowlands Xanadu entertainment and shopping complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, next to Secaucus. The Xanadu project is being underwritten by Goldman Sachs and is a favorite of Governor Corzine, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs.

In the criminal complaint against Rabbi Eliahu "Eli" Ben Haim of the Ohel Yaacob congregation in Deal, a co-conspirator only identified as "I.M.," who is based in Israel and was a principal source of cash for Ben Haim, is cited. It is odd that "I.M." is only identified by initials when two other co-conspirators of Ben Haim are identified by their full names: Schmulik Cohen of Brooklyn and Arye Weiss, also of Brooklyn. "I.M."s modus operandi is described in the criminal complaint:

"Defendant BEN HAIM also mentioned that he owed another individual $495,000. This individual, according to defendant BEN HAIM, had wired money from Hong Kong to Israel, and stated that 'he has money in Hong Kong from his –- the kickbacks from the factories.' Defendant BEN HAIM also further described the activities of Coconspirator I.M. in the following terms: 'the head contact’s in Israel . . . He has different people, he has, . . . he has a hundred cus-, no customer in New York [u/i] [unintelligible] money in Israel [u/i] real estate investments, they, they want to hide their money. They don’t want it to show. So they give the cash here to him and he gives me the cash . . . You see the merry-goround? This guy’s been doing it for 20, 30 years.' Defendant BEN HAIM also indicated that he would pick up cash, as coordinated by Coconspirator I.M., at locations in Brooklyn. The CW [confidential witness] offered to pick up the cash that defendant BEN HAIM anticipated would be available to him the following week."

The complaint provides even greater details of "I.M.'s" money laundering activities:

"Defendant BEN HAIM told the CW about 'customers from two, three years ago that are calling me,' and indicated that “[t]hat’s a signal that the market is tight.' Defendant BEN HAIM also discussed his source for cash, Coconspirator I.M., and stated that he spoke to Coconspirator I.M. '[e]very day - every other day.' Referring to Coconspirator I.M., defendant BEN HAIM then asked the CW '[d]id you know that he had me in the last 4 years send out wires every time to a different place in the world to a different name? It’s unbelievable. I never saw anything like it.' When the CW asked whether defendant BEN HAIM was referring to different locations in only Israel, defendant BEN HAIM replied '[n]o, all over the world. . . All over the world. From Australia to New Zealand to Uganda. I mean [u/i] every country imaginable. Turkey, you can’t believe it. . . . All different names. It’s never the same name. . . . Switzerland, everywhere, France, everywhere, Spain . . . . China, Japan.' Defendant BEN HAIM also explained that the market for cash was tight 'only in the beginning of the year and the end of the year.'"

It appears that the FBI was being careful about naming "I.M." due to his extensive contacts from Israel to countries around the world, an indication that "I.M.," unlike the rabbis and the New Jersey politicos, is a big fry who is laundering large sums of money, possibly from gambling operations, through synagogues and Jewish charities. It is known that Solomon Dwek was involved in a casino boat business and that jailed GOP lobbyist was similarly involved in taking control of Sun Cruz Casino boats in Florida. Abramoff also funded radical Israeli settler movements on the West Bank. WMR has learned from a reliable source that the identity of "I.M,", if revealed, would serve as a body blow to the Likud government of Netanyahu and his major coalition partners, Yisrael Beiteinu of extreme right-wing Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the ultra-orthodox Shas Party. The revelation of "I.M.'s" identity, we are told, will also provide encouragement to the Palestinians to stand their ground against Israeli encroachment in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. In fact, the timing of the recent arrests in New Jersey and New York may be directly tied to Israel's move to build a residential complex in east Jerusalem over the objections of President Barack Obama.

On July 26, 2009, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Rabbi David Yosef, the son of Shas spiritual leader and former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, left the Long Branch, New Jersey home of Ben-Haim for Israel just hours before the FBI raid that saw the arrest of Ben-Haim. In May, Aryeh Deri visited the Syrian-Jewish community in the New York-New Jersey region seeking funds for a new political party. Deri's successor as the head of Shas, Eliyahu "Eli" Yishai, currently serves as Interior Minister and a Deputy Prime Minister of Israel.

Ovadia Yosef recently condemned President Barack Obama for pressuring Israel on the freeze of settlements. Yosef also called for the rebuilding of the Jewish temple on the site of the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam's holiest sites. Yosef complained that there "are Arabs there."

THe north Jersey/Brooklyn area has long been a hub for intelligence and criminal activities by Israeli nationals. In many cases, those arrested have gotten off with light or no sentences. WMR has reported extensively on these, including:

• On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, New Jersey police arrested five Israeli employees of Urban Moving Systems of Weehawken, New Jersey, which is nestled between Jersey City and Hoboken, near Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, next to Secaucus. The Israelis who were earlier seen celebrating, high-fiving, jumping up and down, and videotaping the first and second plane attacks on the World Trade Center.
• The five Israelis were later linked to an Israeli-owned office moving company called Urban Moving Systems headquartered in Weehawken, New Jersey at 3 West 18^th Street. Another Urban Moving office was located on West 50^thStreet in Manhattan. Urban Moving’s owner, Dominik Otto Suter, identified by the CIA and FBI as a Mossad officer, fled to Israel shortly before he was to be re-questioned by the FBI. The five Israelis, after being jailed for five months, were quietly deported to Israel without criminal charges being filed.
• Information Spectrum, Inc. (ISI) of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a subsidiary of the Fairfax, Virginia-based defense contractor, Anteon, took over the operation of the Jersey City police computer system that handled all incoming emergency phone calls on September 11 . . . According to Jersey City Police officials, after the emergency call system was changed from a Wang to a Windows environment, 8000 emergency 911 system calls registered on September 11 were scrubbed from the archives. In fact, archives dating back to 1989, including those dealing with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, were similarly affected.
• In October 2000, an Israeli veteran of the Israel Defense Force overheard a conversation between three men in the Gomel Chesed Cemetery in Newark, New Jersey. The three men speaking in Hebrew were discussing the "planes hitting the twins," a reference to the 9/11 attacks some 11 months later. The FBI Newark office was informed of the conversation. There was no follow-up by the FBI.
• A Syrian Jew named Rimon Alkatri was indicted by a New York City grand jury for phoning a false terrorist threat to the New York City police in May 2006. The indictment charged Alkatri with making a false terrorist threat in the first degree. Alkatri was arrested on July 31, 2006, a little over a week from the hype generated by the "great airplane liquid bombing hoax." Alkatri, who owns the El Castillo de Oro jewelry store on Knickerbocker Avenue in Brooklyn and who arrived in the United States in 1996, was arrested by police while he was leaving his apartment in a Syrian Jewish neighborhood on East 9th Street. In May, Alkatri, using the alias Jose Rodriguez, and claiming to be from Israel, said he overheard five Syrian employees of his store use the phrase "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) and that they were plotting to hide explosives in hollowed-out jewelry and perpetrate a suicide bombing in the New York subway system on the Fourth of July. Police later discovered that the five Syrian "conspirators" identified by Alkatri were not even Muslims, but Christians and Jews. Alkatri, who could have been sentenced to seven years in jail, was given a six month sentence.
• In 2003, Yehuda Abraham, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, global diamond dealer, and native of Afghanistan, was charged with money laundering for an Indian weapons smuggler named Hemant Lakhani who was attempting to purchase Russian portable missile launchers to bring down American passenger planes, including Air Force One, in the United States. Abraham was later convicted in the scheme that also involved a Malaysian bag man associated with the Southeast Asian Al Qaeda off-shoot Jemaah Islamiya. Abraham and Lakhani conducted their meetings near Newark International Airport. Abraham was sentenced to home detention.
• In 2003, Israeli-born Mark Brener, proprietor of Emperor's Club VIP and three money laundering firms -- QAT Consulting Group, QAT International, and Protech Consulting -- moved from South Brunswick, New Jersey to an affluent condo in Cliffside Park, New Jersey with his 19-year old girlfriend Cecil ("Ceci") Suwal. Emperor's Club VIP was the escort service that enmeshed New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and, which more recently is said to involve another Governor, reportedly Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania. Brener received a 30 month prison sentence.
• The targeting of New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, a former mayor of Woodbridge, New Jersey, by Israeli intelligence operative Golan Cipel in a homosexual "honey trap" resulted in McGreevey's sudden resignation from office in 2004. McGreevey appointed Cipel to a top homeland security job for the state of New Jersey. The Emperor's Club VIP expose about Spitzer came on the same day that it was reported that emails from the McGreevey administration were erased from the state's computer systems. Cipel today works as an independent consultant.
• In December 1995, Israeli Interior Minister Haim Ramon barred from entering Israel seven U.S. six U.S. citizens, all members of the terrorist Jewish Defense League, as well as Rabbi Abraham Hecht of the Syrian Jewish community in New York, for involvement in illegal activities in Israel. Hecht had suggested that assassinated Prime Minister Rabin could have been a "moser," a Jew who handed over Jews or Jewish property to non-Jews, and deserved the death penalty.

***

WMR has also learned from sources in China of a significant Turkish angle to the illegal Israeli-run human organ smuggling trade. Apparently, Turkish military surgeons have worked with ethnic Uighurs to harvest organs from young Chinese. The center of the human organ trade is in Israel. Recently, police in Shenzen, China raided a Uighur-run restaurant where younger customers had a habit of disappearing. Police then discovered the restaurant had a grisly secret business: that it was an organ harvesting center, operated with medical expertise from Turkish military surgeons who identified usable organs for for wealthy Israelis, as well as Arab potentates. The Turkish military surgeons apparently got their start after the 1999 Izmit-Istanbul earthquake, the first major operation for the organ harvesters.

The Shenzen eatery's refrigerators were primed for cryogenics, the storage of human organs until transport to customers. The human remains -- limbs, spines, and
heads . . . were boiled down and dumped into the sewer or sold to pig
farmers for slop. Bones were crushed and likewise went down the sewer pipes. Police were originally stymied in collecting evidence in their investigation of the criminal enterprise.