Russian media published a story this week claiming that French customs officers at Paris Orly airport confiscated a shipment of human organs from Ukraine.
RusNext was the first Russian site to feature this fake on April 23, it was immediately reprinted by Narodnyi Korrespondent, Politikus.ru, Imperia, Fishki.net, blog sites and other marginal internet publications.
The story claims that the alleged organs seemingly worth 4 million euros were sent from Dnipro Military Hospital and were intended for Saudi Arabia, they were intercepted in France thanks to a “carefully planned operation by the French police and customs officers at Orly airport”. The intercepted organs were “200 nasal septums and sphincters”.
No we are not making this up. There is no mention of this sensational coup on any official French police site, the French customs are also silent.
Dnipro Military Hospital deputy director Victor Pysanko told StopFake that his hospital has never sent any human organs anywhere and called the entire matter ridiculous.
And nasal septums and sphincters are not organs used for human transplants. According to Russian media, the company meant to receive these septums and sphincters from Ukraine, is called L’abean and it is supposedly registered in the Cayman Islands.
We were not able to find such a company in the Caymans, despite many different searches. Companies with the same name were once registered in Moscow and Perm, however, they are no longer active.
StopFake has written to the French police, customs and Orly airport authorities inquiring about this story, but we have not received a response.
And then, there’s this detail. According to the Russian satirical site Lurkmore, the name L’abean was used in the 1990s for companies set up for a very brief period of time for the purpose of tax evasion and money laundering.
