FIA arrests five in Islamabad human placenta smuggling case

A file photograph of a large public hospital building in Islamabad. — FILE IMAGE A public hospital building in Islamabad. The photograph is a file image and does not depict the facility raided by the FIA or any hospital named in the investigation. Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

What happened

Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is investigating a syndicate suspected of smuggling human placenta out of hospitals to make anti-ageing injections, the BBC reported on Friday 3 July 2026. Officials said about 500 kilogrammes of what is believed to be human placenta was found during a raid on an illegal processing facility in Islamabad the previous week, and five people were arrested.

Photographs shared by the agency showed trays of dried placenta arranged in trolley carts inside a house that had been converted into a facility for storing and processing the material. The FIA also intercepted a 100-kilogramme shipment of placenta at Islamabad airport on Wednesday that was bound for Vietnam, the report said.

What the investigation found

Hina Kanwal, an officer at the Human Organ Transplant Authority, said the suspects bought placenta from hospitals in Islamabad and Rawalpindi at about Rs800 per piece. According to the FIA, the ring is accused of buying about 200 kilogrammes of the material from various hospitals each month, drying and processing it before shipping it abroad. The suspects initially said they were handling sheep placenta but under interrogation disclosed that it was human placenta, investigators said.

The FIA said the material was intended for export for use in anti-ageing injections that sell for about Rs700,000 each. The agency believes the syndicate’s operations extend beyond the capital to other major cities, including Lahore, Peshawar and Rawalpindi, and said it was also examining whether immigration officers, waste management companies and hospitals were complicit.

Why it matters

Under Pakistani law, harvesting human organs for commercial purposes carries a prison term of up to 10 years and a fine of up to Rs1 million. Doctors said placenta is treated as highly infectious medical waste and is subject to strict rules on disposal. The case has raised questions about how medical waste leaves hospitals and about public health oversight of the trade.