In Peru, four people were arrested in connection with an investigation into an alleged international traffic of fat and tissue, which could be linked to 60 disappearances. Seven other people were searched, including two Italian nationals.

The fat was purchased to be sold in European laboratories of cosmetics, said the prosecutor in the investigation. It could fetch $ 15 000 U.S. gallon (about 4 liters) in these countries, said the director of the criminal division of the Peruvian police.

According to the record of Justice, the group attracted traders, with a job offer, peasants or people traveling alone in remote areas of the Andes, before killing them and take samples of their fat.

The network could be linked to a sixty disappearances in the Andean regions of Pasco and Huanuco, 400 km northeast of Lima.

Police made the arrests after the first discovery of a container of human fat in early November. This vessel had been sent to a transport company in Lima from Huanuco.

This incident is riminicant of the legend of Andean “Pishtacos”, a name derived from the Quechua “pishtay” meaning “slice.”

According to this myth, “Pishtacos” attacked and killed passengers or single women for breaking up and use or sell their fat for various purposes: lubricants, soaps, creams or ointments.

Gangs In Peru killed To Steal Human Fat