black market news stories on Newser

Black-Market Kidney Broker Pleads Guilty in NYC

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:53:56 CDT

A New York man pleaded guilty today to what experts said was the first proven case of black-market organ trafficking in the US. Levy Izhak Rosenbaum admitted in federal court in Trenton that he had brokered three illegal kidney transplants from people in Israel for US customers in exchange for...

Looted Missiles, Weapons Go Missing in Libya

John Johnson — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:48:05 CDT

Moammar Gadhafi's days as a free man might be numbered , but Libya and perhaps all of North Africa might have a long-term side effect to deal with: Top-notch weapons and missiles are being stolen left and right from Gadhafi's warehouses across the country, reports CNN . Human Rights Watch officials fear...

Stolen Moon Dust Found Up for Auction

Kevin Spak — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:44:56 CDT

Investigators from NASA and the US attorney's office in St. Louis have found what could be the government’s tiniest piece of stolen property: a bit of moon dust. The item was up for sale at a local auction house, with a value estimated at $1,000 to $1,500, Time...

Knock-Off Bags May Boost Sales of Real Thing

Sarah Whitmire — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 15:10:34 CDT

A New York City councilwoman is trying to make it illegal to own a knock-off designer bag in her district of Chinatown, on the grounds that it hurts business for the real designer. Not so fast, writes Ray Fisman at Slate . Counterfeits may actually help those businesses by essentially acting...

Teen Sells Kidney for iPad 2

Evann Gastaldo — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:33:07 CDT

What would you do for an iPad 2? Probably not what one Chinese teen did: The 17-year-old boy sold one of his kidneys for about $3,000 so he could afford the device. The teen confessed to his mother after arriving home with "a laptop and a new Apple handset"—...

N. Korea Allows Private Food Markets

John Johnson — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:10:00 CDT

North Korea has effectively admitted that it can't feed its citizens by allowing people to buy food and other necessities at private markets, the Washington Post reports. Such markets have existed under the radar for years, but the government order sanctioning what amounts to capitalism "abandons all pretense of a...

Cops Seize Shipment of Human Heads at Airport

Kevin Spak — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:45:56 CDT

Police have seized a package of 40 to 60 human heads at the Little Rock airport. The heads were headed to a medical research company in Fort Worth, but they weren’t “labeled or packaged properly,” according to a spokesman for Southwest Airlines. An employee found them and called the police,...

N. Korean Edict Meets Rare Resistance

John Johnson — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:05:36 CST

When Kim Jong Il imposed new rules this month to crack down on private markets, he encountered a rare thing from his obedient citizenry—resistance. One eastern city had a riot, and public anger forced the government to beat a rare retreat on some of the new currency restrictions, reports...

Contractor Bought Guns on Black Market: Ex-Employees

Kevin Spak — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:33:54 CDT

Triple Canopy, the company that succeeded Blackwater as the top US security contractor in Iraq, bought its weapons on Iraq’s black market, former employees allege in court documents obtained by ProPublica. “We’re spending a lot of money on these rifles, millions of dollars—where do you think that money is...