Reports of murders to obtain human fat in Peru likely a hoax

Dec 2, 2009, 18:35 GMT

   Lima - Reports of a gruesome murder gang that killed people in Peru to obtain and sell their fat were most likely a hoax, according to Peru's top police commander, General Commander Miguel Hidalgo, on Wednesday.

Hidalgo announced an investigation into the situation and suspended General Eusebio Felix, the head of Peru's criminal police who made the original announcement in mid November about the horrific murders.

He also said another 32 police officers were suspended, pending the results of the investigation.

The story originally provoked wide skepticism that human fat, already widely available from cosmetic fat-reduction surgery for very little money or nothing, would even have a market when obtained through murder.

But Felix confirmed initial unsourced reports, announcing at a press conference in mid November that three alleged members of the gang Los Pishtacos had been arrested for murdering up to 60 people to obtain the fat from their bodies and sell it to cosmetic manufacturers for 15,000 dollars per litre.

Felix said the murders occurred in the Peruvian regions of Huanuco and Pasco.

The story gained even more credibility when Peruvian Interior Minister Octavio Salazar backed the announcement and was annoyed by those who disputed it. He conceded on Tuesday that his staff had found no evidence to confirm the story.

The story made international headlines - especially with the mythological aspect that connected the murders to the mythology of Andean cultures, where a pishtaco is an evil creature that kills people to steal their fat.

   Hidalgo said his investigation aims to also determine why Felix insisted on such a story that experts from the start said was difficult to believe.

Peruvian analysts suspect that the story may have served to distract attention from other issues. According to some reports, Felix may have been trying to distract the public from an investigation of alleged police squadrons which allegedly killed criminals in the city of Trujillo from August 2007-March 2008 and then pretended that they had died in clashes.

Hidalgo apparently launched his investigation after an unnamed police office was quoted Monday in La Republica as saying that local police were surprised about the allegations because they knew them 'not to be true.'

   'This is a village where everybody knows everything, and even if locals do not report the murder or disappearance of their relatives, we find out anyway,' he was quoted as saying.

   Human fat, once prized for cosmetics and medicinal uses, was collected in past centuries from the bodies of executed prisoners.