Fat People the Target of Gang Murders in Peru; Fat Sold on Black Market

If you are the slightest bit pudgy, you may want to reconsider that trip to Peru. Peruvian police have captured several members of a remote jungle gang that kills people for their fat. The fat is then reportedly sold on the black market for use in cosmetics.

One of the suspects revealed that the killers would cut off their victims' heads and limbs, remove the organs, and then suspend the torsos from hooks over candles to melt fat from the bodies.

Three suspects have confessed to killing five people for their fat. Two suspects were arrested carrying bottles of liquid fat and revealed to police that it was worth $60,000 per gallon. Police seized two bottles of amber colored fluid from the suspects, and testing later proved it was human fat.

The suspects said that the fat was sold to intermediaries in Lima. Officials suspect that the fat was sold to cosmetic companies in Europe.

Police refer to the jungle gang as the "Pishtacos" after a Peruvian myth of Incas who killed to extract human fat, quartering their victims with machetes.

Six gang members, including the leader, Hilario Cudena, 56, have thus far eluded capture. Cudena has been said to have been killing to extract fat from victims for more than three decades.

This year alone at least 60 people have been reported missing in the Huanuco province where the gang allegedly operates.

Police arrested two suspects at a Lima bus station on November 3. They were carrying a quart of human fat in a soda bottle. Three days later, another suspect was arrested at the same bus station. All three are charged with homicide, criminal conspiracy, illegal firearms possession and drug trafficking.

One of the suspects said that his gang was not the only one engaged in these kind of killings.

Medical experts, however, express doubt about an international black market for human fat. Yale dermatology professor Dr. Lisa Donofrio says that a small market may exist for "human fat extracts" to keep skin supple, but notes that such treatments don't really work.