America’s bodysnatching trade was exposed in gruesome detail yesterday when three funeral directors were charged with selling corpses for $1,000 (£500) apiece so that their bones, tissue and skin could be transplanted into unsuspecting hospital patients around the world. The funeral directors are accused of forging death certificates to say that the cause of death was either a heart attack or blunt-force trauma, so that the body parts could be sold on.

At least one of the “donors” was HIV-positive and suffered from hepatitis C and cancer.

After a 16-month investigation, a grand jury in Philadelphia said that 244 bodies were sold to a former oral surgeon in Brooklyn, who allegedly ran a team of “cutters” to remove the most lucrative parts. The surgeon, Michael Mastromarino - whose former company was called Biomedical Tissue Services - is already facing charges in New York for plundering 1,077 bodies, including the 244 from Philadelphia.

Other funeral directors in New York have already pleaded guilty as part of the same investigation - including one man whose funeral home allegedly removed parts from the body of the late broadcaster Alistair Cooke and replaced them with plastic plumbing materials.

“No penalty is too harsh for these guys, for the just unbelievably craven nature of what they did,” said Lynne Abraham, the Philadelphia District Attorney. The funeral directors are Louis Garzone, 65; his younger brother, Gerald Garzone, 47; and James McCafferty, 37. They were arrested this week on thousands of counts ranging from running a corrupt organisation to forgery and theft of body parts.

Also indicted was Mr Mastromarino, who lost his oral surgery licence amid unrelated drug charges; and Lee Cruceta, a former nurse who allegedly ran his macabre “cutting” crew. Mr Mastromarino plans to surrender himself to the authorities in Philadelphia next week.

“He was victimised by the funeral directors,” Mario Gallucci, his defence lawyer, claimed yesterday. “The funeral directors were in charge of getting consent. All he was supposed to do was come and harvest the tissue and send the samples down to the processors.”

The victims of the bodysnatching operation are said to be mostly poor familes who thought that their relatives were being cremated quickly. In fact their bodies were often left unrefrigerated for days, sometimes in alleys beside the funeral home, until a “cutter” arrived.

“One of the ‘cutters’ said it was like the back of a butcher shop, it was so dirty,” Ms Abraham said.

However, because of the forged death certificates, the true identities of only 48 of the 244 bodies are known. The bodysnatching ring also lowered the donors’ ages and changed their dates of death to make it appear that their body parts were more fresh, it is claimed.

According to the grand jury’s 111-page indictment, Biomedical Tissue Services sold the stolen body parts to treat burns and replace broken bones, among other things, with the transactions taking place between February 2004 and September 2005.

The three funeral directors were taken into custody this week. None has so far made a public statement.

The lawyer acting for Mr Cruceta said yesterday: “I’ve yet to be shown a single shred of evidence that he knew what was going on.”

Mr Mastromarino, meanwhile, is already fighting the charges against him in New York.

Times Recommends

• Please help: maimed children of war want their lives back
• Cabal seizes diamond riches to buy power
• White House gatecrashers got to the president