Peru's gangs kill for human body fat Star: Peru's gangs kill for human body fat

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Peru's gangs kill for human body fat

November 21, 2009 Edition 1

LIMA, Peru: Police say a gang in the Peruvian jungle has been killing people and draining fat from the corpses to sell on the black market for use in cosmetics.

Three suspects confessed to killing five people, but the gang may have been involved in dozens more, said Colonel Jorge Mejia, chief of Peru's anti-kidnapping police. He said one suspect claimed the gang wasn't the only one killing for human fat.

Mejia said two of the suspects were arrested carrying bottles of liquid human fat and told police it was worth $15 000 (R113 000) a litre. The fat was sold to intermediaries in Peru's capital, Lima, and police suspect it was then sold to cosmetic companies in Europe, but could not confirm sales.

Medical experts expressed doubt about an international black market for human fat, though it does have cosmetic applications. A dermatology professor at Yale University, Dr Lisa Donofrio, speculated that a small market may exist for "human fat extracts" to keep skin supple, but she said that scientifically such treatments are "pure baloney".

Police showed reporters two bottles of fat recovered from the suspects and a photo of the rotting head of a 27-year-old male victim. Suspect Elmer Segundo Castillejos, 29, led police to the head, recovered in a coca-growing valley last month, Mejia said.

Mejia said Castillejos recounted how the gang cut off its victims' heads, arms and legs, removed the organs, then suspended the torsos from hooks above candles that warmed the flesh as fat dripped into tubs below.

Six members of the gang remain at large, Mejia said. Among them was the band's alleged leader, Hilario Cudena, 56, who, Castillejos told police, has been killing people to extract human fat for more than three decades.

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

Mejia said police received a tip four months ago that human fat from the jungle was being sold in Lima. In August, he said, police infiltrated the band and later obtained amber fluid which a police lab confirmed as human fat.

At the beginning of November, police arrested Serapio Marcos Veramendi and Enedina Estela in a Lima bus station with a litre of human fat in a soda bottle. Their testimony led to the arrest of Castillejos three days later at the same bus station.

The three are charged with homicide, criminal conspiracy, illegal firearms possession and drug trafficking, said a Lima court. Police are searching for the alleged buyer. - Sapa-AP

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	$drug_related [news] [concept]	$illegal_drugs
	$drugwar_propaganda 55% [news] [concept]	$propaganda_theme1 $propaganda_theme2		Classic Modern Drug Propaganda Themes in Chemical Prohibition Drug War Propaganda (book)
	$propaganda_theme1 55% [news] [concept]	"gang" "gangs"	9	Hated Groups (propaganda theme 1) http://www.drugwarfacts.org/druguse.htm http://www.drugwarfacts.org/racepris.htm http://www.narcoterror.org/
	$propaganda_theme2 50% [news] [concept]	"kidnapping" "homicide" "criminal" "damage"	4	Madness,Crime,Violence,Illness (propaganda theme 2) http://www.drugwarfacts.org/crime.htm http://www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm Distortion 18: Cannabis and Mental Illness
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	$plants [news] [concept]	$coca		http://www.erowid.org/plants/plants.shtml
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	$various_drugs 90% [news] [concept]	"drug-trafficking" "drug"	2
	$various_illegal_drugs [news] [concept]	"drug trafficking" "black market"	3	http://www.mapinc.org http://www.drugwarfacts.org DEA's Drugs of Abuse booklet http://www.drugwarfacts.org/drugtest.htm
	$school [news] [concept]	"schools" "University"	3	http://www.ssdp.org/
	$aggrandizement [news] [concept]	"experts"	1	Tyranny of Experts Aggrandizement of Government The Media As Enablers of Government Lies

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