Police in Spain arrested a rich Lebanese man suspected of trying to buy the healthy liver of a poor immigrant to receive it as a transplant, officials said Wednesday.

They said it was the first such organ trafficking racket uncovered in Spain, which is a pioneer in advanced transplants and performs more such operations than any other country in the world. The 61-year-old, who was reported in Spanish media to be a Lebanese mayor, is suspected of approaching several immigrants, offering 40,000 euros ($55,000) for a liver, and finally making a deal with a Romanian.

Medics at a hospital in Barcelona suspected when they met the pair that there was not a close relationship between them -- one of the legal conditions for such transplants in order to avoid trafficking. "It was clear that there was an attempt to buy and sell a liver, and it was not carried out," the director of the national police, Ignacio Cosido, told a news conference. Police were already investigating the case after an Algerian woman in the eastern city of Valencia told an immigrant support group in June that she had been offered 40,000 euros for her liver. [Link]