Monday, November 23, 2009

Updated: Peruvian gang members arrested for trafficking human fat


November 20, 2009

Updated

Weird. And gross.

Seems there’s a gang of fat collectors down in Peru. They harvest fat from dead humans and then sell it. Problem is they’re not harvesting it from cadavers – they’re murdering unfortunate fat folks. Sixty people are missing from two regions in Peru.

Police arrested four gang members and charged them with the murder of Abel Matos Aranda, after one of them was caught with a container of human fat. Police had found a small container at a bus depot and picked up a suspect after he removed three bottles of the fat, which they suspect belonged to Aranda.

Other suspects: Elmer Segundo Castillejos Aguero, Hilario Cudena Simon and Enedina Estela Claudio.

They confessed to trafficking the human fat and they might also face drug charges.

There is a really weird twist involving “brujos,” the Spanish word for witches. Evidently it’s part of an “Andean mountain culture that believes bodies can be used to ward off evil and prevent disasters”.

The fat was sold in Peru and Europe for “commercial purposes”.

Still not sure what the fat was used for – cosmetics? – but they were paid $15,000 per liter of fat.

How fat are people in Peru?

Think of the market they’d have in the US.

An enterprising plastic surgeon in California, Dr C. Alan Bittner, specialized in “green liposuction”. He was recycling the lipo’d fat from his patients to use as fuel for his vehicle.

Source: CNN

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