The Islamic State has reportedly found an extremely sordid means to fund its terrorist organization across the Middle East: by trafficking human organs from dead soldiers, dead and living hostages, including children, a new report has revealed.
For months, foreign doctors have allegedly been recruited by ISIS commanders to harvest internal organs not only from the bodies of their own dead soldiers, but also from living hostages - including children - taken from minority villages in Iraq and Syria, according to a report by al-Monitor news website.
"Surgeries take place within a hospital and organs are quickly transported through networks specialized in trafficking human organs," the report's author wrote. "The organs come from fallen fighters who were quickly transported to the hospital, injured people who were abandoned or individuals who were kidnapped."
Until now, it was known that the jihadist group was stuffing its $2 million-a-year war chest from multiple shadowy sources, including oil production, human trafficking and drug smuggling.
But according to doctor Siruwan al-Mosuli, an extensive organ trafficking system, which is already beginning to generate huge profits, is currently being run by hired foreign doctors from a hospital in the captured city of Mosul, northern Iraq, Western Journalism reported.
After completing operational procedures at the hospital, the human hearts, livers and kidneys are transferred to a specialist organ-smuggling division whose sole responsibility is to sell the internal organs on the lucrative international black market, the Iraqi ear, nose and throat doctor said.
Then, a majority of the organs are smuggled out of Syria and Iraq into neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia or Turkey where criminal gangs sell them on to shady buyers across the globe, the Assyrian International News Agency reported.
"[Al-Mosuli] said that lately he noticed unusual movement within medical facilities in Mosul Arab and foreign surgeons were hired, but prohibited from mixing with local doctors," the report said. "Information then leaked about organ selling."
Another shocking revenue source of the terror group is the tactic of helping smuggle families and individuals into other countries, according to UK MailOnline. In one instance, a family reportedly paid ISIS over $8,000 per individual to sneak them into Turkey.
In addition, "significant revenues" are recently being generated from trafficking of Afghan heroin into Europe from the city of Nineveh. According to the Russian Federal Drug Control Service, ISIS currently supplies half of Europe's entire heroin market.
"The large-scale movement of Afghan heroin acts as an ongoing financial base aiding the functioning of the Islamic State, which secures huge profits by providing half of the total heroin supplied to Europe via destabilized Iraq and some African heroin, which is sent from Iraq to Europe," the Russian Federal Drug Control Service issued in a statement.
However, more than $1 million per day is earned by the terror group from oil refineries captured in besieged towns, according to Christian Post.
