An Interesting Story from the AP

The following article first appeared in the November 20 Associated Press wire service. The specific post below comes from the NY Times. A very interesting and compelling conundrum - true? It seems that the debate over the validity of this articles content is not fully settled. One thing is certain - desperate poverty will force people to do very desperate things -

Read on . . .

November 20, 2009

Peru’s Police Say Gang Drained Victims’ Fat

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A gang in the remote Peruvian jungle has been killing people for their fat, the police said Thursday, accusing the gang’s members of draining fat from bodies and selling it on the black market for use in cosmetics.

Medical experts expressed skepticism, however, that a major market for fat might exist.

Three suspects have confessed to killing five people for their fat, said Col. Jorge Mejía, chief of Peru’s anti-kidnapping police. He said the suspects, two of whom were arrested carrying bottles of liquid fat, told the police it was worth $60,000 a gallon.

Colonel Mejía said the suspects had told the police that the fat had been sold to intermediaries in Lima, the capital. While police officials suspect that the fat was sold to cosmetic companies in Europe, he said he could not confirm any sales.

Several medical experts acknowledged that fat had cosmetic uses, but they also said they doubted that there was an international black market for human fat. Dr. Lisa M. Donofrio, a Yale University dermatology professor, speculated that a small market might exist for “human fat extracts” to keep skin supple, though she added that scientists considered such treatments “pure baloney.”

At a news conference, the police showed reporters two bottles of fat recovered from the suspects and a photo of the rotting head of a 27-year-old man. One of the suspects, Elmer Segundo Castillejos, helped police officers recover the head in a coca-growing valley last month, Colonel Mejía said.

Colonel Mejía said Mr. Castillejos had told officers that the gang would cut off its victims’ heads, arms and legs, remove the organs, and then suspend the torsos from hooks above candles that warmed the flesh as the fat dripped into tubs below.

Six members of the gang remain at large, he said, adding that in addition to the five killings to which the suspects had confessed, the gang might have been involved in dozens of others. Mr. Castillejos told the police that the band’s fugitive leader, Hilario Cudena, had been killing people to extract fat for more than three decades.

At least 60 people are listed as missing this year in Huanuco Province, where the gang is believed to have operated. The province is also home to drug-trafficking leftist rebels.

Colonel Mejía said the police had received a tip four months ago that human fat from the jungle was being sold in Lima. In August, he said, police officers infiltrated the gang and later obtained some of the amber fluid, which a police lab confirmed as human fat.

The police arrested Serapio Marcos Veramendi and Enedina Estela on Nov. 3 in a Lima bus station with a quart of human fat in a soda bottle, he said. Their testimony led to the arrest of Mr. Castillejos three days later at the same bus station.

All three are charged with homicide, criminal conspiracy, illegal firearms possession and drug trafficking, according to a statement from Lima Superior Court.