article_snippet: The pair were brought into Kosovo last year by gangs seeking to exploit the worldwide demand for transplant organs.
article_snippet: According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as many as 7,000 kidneys are illegally obtained by gangs each year around the world.
article_snippet: While there is a black market for hearts, lungs and livers, kidneys are the most sought-after organs because one can be removed from a patient without serious ill-effects.
article_snippet: The demand for organs outstrips supply in almost every country.
article_snippet: The WHO says around ten per cent of the 63,000 kidney transplants carried out annually worldwide involve payment of non-related donors of different nationalities.
article_snippet: Lutfi Dervishi, clinic director, was jailed for eight years after heading an organ-trafficking ring that performed at least 24 illegal kidney transplants on the outskirts of Pristina, in the former Yugoslav republic of Kosovo .
article_snippet: Globally, at least 200,000 people are on waiting lists for kidneys, and many more have no access to transplantation or dialysis services.
article_snippet: The clinic’s director Lutfi Dervishi, who was sentenced to eight years in jail, had promised victims about £12,500 each for kidneys that were then sold on the black market for as much as £84,000 a time, but donors often went unpaid.
article_snippet: According to the WHO, a heart can fetch up to £1 million on the black market and a pancreas or liver about £500,000.
highlights_snippet: Market for hearts, lungs and livers - but kidneys are the most sought-after .
  
highlights_snippet: Organ trafficking ring in Kosovo performed 24 illegal kidney transplants .