ISIS's Desperation: Selling Organs for Cash

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With the oil money they were receiving decreasing, ISIS has gone to different measures to fund their operations. They've started stealing organs from their own soldiers and selling them on the black market.And it's not just the fighters that have died that are loosing kidneys; it's also the injured ISIS members that are being targeted for organ harvesting.(You know, because helping to kill your own soldiers is a long-term, sustainable plan to win a war.)

According to a local news source, "[A] Special medical unit of the organization proceeded to steal human organs from about 23 ISIS militants of those who slept in the hospitals of Nineveh. What has been stolen from those members included the kidneys, intestines and more; they were transferred under tight control to affiliated hospital on the outskirts of the city."Unfortunately, it looks like they've expanded this venture beyond their own soldiers and are also targeting their hostages, many of whom are children, for healthy organs. They've contracted in foreign doctors to do the dirty work for most of this.Their other methods of income until now have also come from drug trading and human trafficking. The drug business has gotten so bad, that the Russian Federal Drug Control Service now states that IS now supplies over half of Europe's Heroin market. According to a statement they recently released:"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."While income levels are falling, the biggest source of income for ISIS is still oil, which they capture through the refineries of the city's that they remain in control of. It's estimated that the oil brings in approximately $1 million a day for IS forces.

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