Police have arrested three members of a gang in Peru which allegedly murdered local peasants and drained their fat to sell to European cosmetics manufacturers. Two of the alleged perpetrators were detained at a bus station in Lima carrying liquid fat in soft drink bottles, which they claimed was worth up to US$15,000 per litre.

The bottles of fat were confirmed as human by laboratory testing. Eusebio Felix Murga, police chief of the Dirincri district, told The Guardian that “The fat was extracted from the thorax and thighs”.

The suspects are alleged to have operated in the rural province of Huánuco, an area between Andean peaks and the jungle. The gang members have confessed to the murders of five people, but police believe that the number could be a great deal higher. In Huánuco this year alone, 60 people have been reported missing. The gang may have been operating for as long as 30 years.

Medical experts have expressed doubts about the skin-enhancing properties of the fat. Yale University professor of dermatology, Dr Lisa Donofrio, told The Independent that a small market may exist for “human fat extracts” to keep skin supple, but that treatments of this nature were “pure baloney”. Plastic surgeons have also stated that human fat is available from liposuction clinics, and that cosmetics companies would not need to go to Peru.

As the health editor of the Independent, Jeremy Laurance, wrote, "It is conceivable that somewhere on the wilder shores of the cosmetics industry there are products based on human fat extracts, backed by extravagant claims for their skin-rejuvenating powers. But there is nothing unique about human fat in terms of its cosmetic function. The cosmetics industry is littered with strange products backed by strange stories. But this is the strangest of them all." ~ The Independent, Nov 21; Deutsche Welle, Nov 21; Guardian, Nov 20