Brazil Police Raids University Lab, Discovers Human Organs Shipped to Fashion Designer in Singapore [Full Details]

The Brazil police announced that they had found a human hand and three packets of human placenta allegedly been shipped from a university in Brazil to a fashion designer in Singapore.

Amazonas State University in Brazil was raided on February 22, with police discovering that the organs were preserved by an anatomy professor, according to a Newsweek report.

Police in Brazil released a statement claiming that the anatomy lab in the university "performed the extraction of body fluids."

The state university was also part of the process of plastination, which is a process wherein fluids are replaced with plastics such as silicon and epoxy to preserve body parts.

The professor who preserved the organs is now under investigation.

A federal police officer in Brazil has confirmed that the organs bound for Singapore had already left Brazilian shores, according to a Vice World News report.

However, it is not clear whether the package containing human organs has been intercepted yet.

The university released a statement saying that the state university complied with the court order and determined the opening of the investigation to prove the facts and responsibilities.

Arnold Putra

The fashion design involved in the trafficking of human organs was identified as Arnold Putra.

Putra has made the headlines in 2020 when he sold a handbag made of bones from a human spine.

The handbag is a $5,000 one-off piece, which first went on sale in 2016. The bag was a basket-style handbag with a handle Formed with what appears to be a human spinal cord.

Experts noted that they believe the human spinal cord was real, according to an Insider report.

On Putra's Instagram account @byarnoldputra, he detailed his fashion line. The posts also featured the spine bag, which has also been marketed for sale on some fashion sites.

The post was captioned with a description that the bag was made of an "entire child's spine who osteoporosis."

The fashion designer said that the account was run by someone else and that he had "contributed." However, he did not confirm whether the spine really belonged to a child.

Two child osteopaths saw the pictures and confirmed it was a real human spine, but they did not agree whether it belonged to a child.

Putra said that his process of procuring the human organs does not involve him traveling to places at all.

He then said that the spine was medically sourced from "Canada with papers."

Human Organs Trafficking in Brazil

The buying and selling of human organs equate to a state crime punishable by law in Brazil.

In 2011, three Brazilian doctors were charged with murder and jailed for killing patients at an upscale private clinic in Sao Paulo.

Four patients were killed by the removal of their organs. Prosecutors said that they were used for transplants at an expensive private clinic, according to an NBC News report.

The Brazilian doctors were identified as Rui Sacramento, Pedro Torrecillas, and Mariano Fiore Junior to 17 years and six months each in prison.

Sacramento and Torrecillas were charged with murder after they removed both kidneys from the patients and prepared the human organs for transport.

Meanwhile, Fiore, a neurosurgeon, was charged as an accomplice for incorrectly declaring the patients to be brain dead and allowing the harvest of their organs.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by Mary Webber

WATCH: Undercover video of human organ traders - from BBC News