Detectives are investigating around 30 cash-for-kidney operations following a tip from Brazilian law enforcers. Brazilian police said they moved on the group last Tuesday, seizing 11 suspected members and breaking up the syndicate which offered poor people thousands of dollars to part with an organ.

An Israeli, who police say received a kidney transplant, and a South African of Israeli descent suspected to be a middleman, were arrested in Durban on Wednesday, police spokeswoman Mary Martins-Engelbrecht told Reuters. Both were released on bail.

The syndicate is part of a growing illicit trade in organs, spawned by an acute shortage of kidneys in rich countries.

Many people either die while on transplant waiting lists or become so ill they are no longer suitable.

"People were approached and offered large sums of money (in Brazil) in return for their organs," Martins-Engelbrecht said. "They were taken to two private hospitals in Durban, where organs were taken out and immediately transplanted."

Durban's St. Augustine's Hospital said it was helping a police inquiry and "unaware of any illegal financial transactions which may have occurred between donors and organ recipients." It said it had performed kidney transplants on patients from around the world. "The process of screening for a compatible and suitable living donor is...undertaken in the country of origin." Despite poor health care for much of its black majority, South Africa's top hospitals are centers of excellence.

Brazilian police said candidates were given medical tests to make sure they were healthy before being sent to Durban. They said the going price for a kidney was about $10,000, although the organ had recently sold for as little as $6,000. Martins-Engelbrecht said police were now concentrating on medical workers. More arrests were likely, she said.