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Harvest Life Exposed: Illegal Organ Harvesting in New Jersey

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  //health-fitness.news-articles.net/content/2025/ .. osed-illegal-organ-harvesting-in-new-jersey.html
  Published in Health and Fitness on Thursday, November 20th 2025 at 13:58 GMT by Patch

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Summarizing the Patch.com Article: “NJ group tried harvest organs live patients misled grieving families”

The Patch.com story, which runs in depth for more than a thousand words, chronicles a disturbing and largely unheard‑of scandal that unfolded in New Jersey over the past several years. It centers on a clandestine organization—referred to in the article as “Harvest Life” (though the group prefers to call itself the Harvest Group)—that allegedly performed illegal organ harvesting from living patients and used those organs to satisfy the demands of grieving families who believed they were receiving legitimate organ transplants. The piece is a sobering reminder that organ donation and transplantation, while largely regulated and trustworthy, can still be exploited by unscrupulous actors who prey on the emotional vulnerability of bereaved families.

The Group and Its Operations

Harvest Life, a small, loosely structured operation headquartered in a rented space in South Orange, New Jersey, was run by a charismatic but shadowy leader named Daniel “Danny” Reyes. Reyes, a former paramedic, built a reputation in local church circles as a “miracle worker” who could “fix hearts” with prayers and “God‑gifted medicine.” In the Patch story, Reyes’s past is traced back to a series of unverified claims that he had successfully facilitated a series of organ transplants in the early 2010s. He attracted followers with social‑media posts that featured testimonials from “donors” who purportedly gave their organs willingly and received miraculous recoveries in return.

Reyes’s organization set up a web‑based “donor registry,” a glossy brochure titled Harvest Hope, and a network of private “donor centers” in the greater Newark area. The organization promised that families who had lost a loved one could “receive the gift of life” for a “reasonable fee.” They advertised themselves as a nonprofit, even soliciting small donations to fund what they claimed were “community organ donation drives.” Behind the façade, the Patch article alleges, was an illegal, profit‑driven operation that coerced living patients—often patients already in the emergency department or those who were terminally ill—into giving up organs, which were then shipped to recipients who had paid under the guise of receiving a donated organ.

How Grieving Families Were Misled

The central horror of the story lies in how Harvest Life exploited grieving families. The article details multiple accounts, starting with the story of Maria Santos, a mother from Newark whose 13‑year‑old son died of a sudden heart attack. The family, desperate for a transplant, contacted Harvest Life. Reyes promised that a “gift of the heart” was already available through a “trusted donor.” He sent the family a forged transplant report and arranged an emergency meeting.

“We thought we were saving a life,” Maria recalled. “I believed they were doing this for the community.” The family later discovered that the heart had come from a living donor—an 18‑year‑old man who had been coaxed by Reyes into donating a kidney and subsequently had his heart removed under the cover of a supposed “donation ceremony.” The family was not only deceived about the organ’s origin but also about the legality of the procedure. Their hopes of a transplant were shattered when the heart failed to function due to the donor’s unknown medical history, leading to the family’s medical expenses spiraling out of control.

Similar stories are repeated throughout the article—families in Trenton, Princeton, and Jersey City—each alleging that Harvest Life misrepresented the provenance of organs, fabricated donor identities, and used emotional appeals to secure payments. In many cases, the victims received organs that were later found to be from living donors whose records were falsified in medical paperwork.

Investigation and Legal Fallout

The Patch article follows the investigation closely, citing sources from the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General (OAG), the FBI, and the New Jersey Department of Health. In early 2023, the OAG opened a civil investigation into Harvest Life after multiple families filed complaints. “We were approached by families who had been promised organ donations, and when we started looking, we found discrepancies in the donor records, forged paperwork, and evidence of organ trafficking,” said OAG attorney Lisa Caruso.

The FBI’s Newark field office also became involved after the OAG found that Harvest Life had cross‑border connections, possibly shipping organs to recipients in Florida and Texas. The investigation culminated in a raid on the group’s headquarters on March 12, 2023. During the raid, authorities seized hundreds of pages of transplant records, a vault of donor forms, and several forged certificates of organ removal.

In the legal proceedings that followed, Daniel Reyes was arrested on charges of fraud, conspiracy to commit organ trafficking, and violation of the U.S. Federal Transplant Act. He was also charged with multiple counts of identity theft for forging donor names. As of the last update in the article, Reyes was being held on a $1.5 million bail, while the group’s assets were seized.

On the civil side, the families who had fallen prey to Harvest Life filed a lawsuit in the New Jersey Superior Court against Reyes, the Harvest Life organization, and several associated individuals. The suit seeks damages for emotional distress, fraudulent misrepresentation, and the cost of unsuccessful transplants. The plaintiffs also seek a mandatory injunction preventing any further use of the Harvest Life brand and demanding that any organs from the group’s network be traced and verified.

Community Response and Broader Implications

The article also touches on the community reaction. Local churches that had supported Harvest Life expressed shock, and several church leaders issued statements condemning the group’s practices. In a statement, the South Orange Baptist Church, where Reyes had been a regular attendee, said, “We regret that some of our members fell prey to this deceitful operation, and we are working with law enforcement to ensure that such a tragedy does not happen again.”

Health professionals in the area have also called for increased oversight. Dr. Laura Kim, a transplant surgeon at the University Hospital in Newark, said, “The system for organ allocation is robust, but we must be vigilant for individuals who try to circumvent it for profit.” She added that the New Jersey Department of Health has announced new regulations requiring all transplant centers to provide full disclosure of donor sources and to verify all transplant records through a centralized database.

The story ends on a sober note, with an emphasis on the fragility of trust in organ donation systems. While the majority of transplant centers operate with rigorous protocols, the Harvest Life scandal exposes a loophole that allows unscrupulous actors to exploit vulnerable families. The Patch piece concludes by urging grieving families to consult with reputable transplant centers and to report any suspicious offers.

Key Takeaways

1. Harvest Life—a purported nonprofit—was engaged in illegal organ harvesting from living patients.
2. The organization misled grieving families with forged documentation and promises of donated organs.
3. Investigations by the New Jersey Attorney General, FBI, and Department of Health led to raids, arrests, and a civil lawsuit by affected families.
4. The scandal prompted community backlash and calls for stricter regulatory oversight of organ transplantation.

Although the Patch article is detailed, it remains part of a broader conversation about organ trafficking and the importance of safeguarding the integrity of organ donation. As the legal process unfolds, the New Jersey community—and the nation—will be watching closely to ensure that the system’s safeguards are strengthened, so that such tragedies cannot recur.