A courier delivery van disguised as a meals on wheels vehicle has been exposed as cover for Chinese traditional medicine peddlers, who used it to collect human placentas from hospitals whilst pretending to deliver meals to patients.

The placentas were taken from hospital by crooked medics who sold them to the traditional medicine men when they turned up in the food delivery service van.

The valuable medical waste, which was packaged up in meals on wheels styrofoam boxes, was seized at a highway toll station near in the city of Ji’an in eastern China.

According to officials, the driver of the mini van where the placentas were loaded said that he was delivering a special seafood service for hospital patients.

But a routine search soon turned up the bloodied bags containing the remnants of human birthing procedures.

“It was disgusting,” said one officer. “They buy this stuff illegally from people working in hospitals. They then send it off to remote workshops where it is dried and ground down into all sorts of medicines designed to make one strong, potent, wealthy – you name it.”

The Chinese Ministry of Health declared years ago that human placentas must be designated as medical waste and destroyed. It is forbidden for any organisation or individual person to trade in human placentas including transporting them.

But such is the hunger for traditional medicine that the laws are flouted across the country and it is estimated thousands of placentas are illegally sold and processed every week.

The minibus driver was fined for carrying his illegal cargo and is currently co-operating with police attempting to track down the gang.