Cedric Lodge, the director of the Harvard Medical School Morgue, along with his wife Denise Lodge and four other individuals, have been indicted on charges of organ trafficking and trafficking of human remains.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the suspects are accused of being accomplices in the theft and transportation of stolen goods. The couple was arrested without incident on Wednesday.

Cedric Lodge is accused of being involved in a nationwide network that purchased and sold stolen human remains from the university and a morgue in Arkansas between 2018 and 2022. The harvested organs were supposedly intended for medical scientific research but were illegally diverted.

The deans of Harvard’s medical department have expressed their dismay over these acts, which they describe as a “heinous betrayal.” Investigators believe that Mr. Lodge acted alone in this scandalous affair, with no involvement from his colleagues.

In France, a similar scandal erupted in 2019 when several individuals were indicted following the revelation of horrifying conditions in which some bodies donated to science were kept in the heart of Paris’s historical center (University Paris-Descartes).