( CNN ) -- Peruvian authorities say they have arrested four members of a gang that specialized in selling to European labs fat obtained from dead humans . Officials are investigating the disappearance of at least 60 people they believe were killed by gang members in two mountainous states in central Peru , lead prosecutor Jorge Sanz Quiroz said Friday . The four suspects have been charged with murder in the September slaying of a Peruvian man , the prosecutor said . `` They killed to obtain human fat because there were European laboratories that would pay them , '' Sanz Quiroz said . The suspects told authorities they were paid $ 15,000 for a liter ( about 1 quart ) of human fat . Officials did not disclose what possible use laboratories could have for the human fat , but fat can be a component of cosmetics and is used in reconstructive or cosmetic surgery . The use of human fat for any purpose is extremely rare , however , physicians say . Other suspects , including the Peruvian ringleader , have eluded capture , Sanz Quiroz said . Authorities have the names of two Italian suspects who are being sought by Interpol , the 188-nation worldwide police agency , the prosecutor said . He declined to reveal their identities . Sanz Quiroz acknowledged the uniqueness of the allegations . `` We are not making this up , '' he said . `` They have confessed to this . That 's what 's coming out now . '' One of the suspects told officials he had been committing the murders for five years . According to a criminal complaint Sanz Quiroz filed November 18 , officials discovered on September 22 a small container containing a fat-like substance that had been stored at the Bella Durmiente bus station in Lima , Peru 's capital . On November 3 , the complaint says , suspect Serapio Marcos Veramendi Principe was arrested after he retrieved three bottles from the Estrella Polar bus station . The bottles contained a substance authorities believe is human fat , the complaint says . Lab tests are being performed to determine what the substance is . Authorities identified the three other suspects as Elmer Segundo Castillejos Aguero , Hilario Cudena Simon and Enedina Estela Claudio . The suspects identified each other for police in photo lineups , the complaint says . In addition to murder , Veramendi Principe and Castillejos Aguero face weapons charges . Castillejos Aguero , Veramendi Principe and Estela Claudio also face drug charges , authorities said . They are accused in the September 16 killing of Abel Matos Aranda , the criminal complaint says . Authorities believe the substance found at the bus stations is body fat obtained from Matos Aranda . Officials unearthed a partially buried male body November 13 in Huanuco state . They believe it was Matos Aranda . Sanz Quiroz referred to the suspects as `` brujos , '' the Spanish word for witches . He noted that the suspects are part of an Andean mountain culture that believes bodies can be used to ward off evil and prevent disasters . For example , he said , bodies are often buried at the entrances to mine shafts and bridges in the belief they will keep the structures from collapsing . Authorities are calling the suspects `` pishtacos , '' which are Andean mythological creatures . In his 1996 book `` Death in the Andes , '' Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa mentions pishtacos extensively , saying they are half-white ghouls who live in caves , lurk along dark isolated roads and suck the fat out of anyone careless enough to travel Andean roads at night . Andean myth holds that the fat is used to make soaps , lubricants , healing potions and cosmetic creams . Until the arrests , few believed that anything resembling pishtacos existed . `` It 's an Andean myth that we 've now been able to prove , '' said Miguel Jimenez Torres , a spokesman for the prosecutor 's office . Some physicians say human fat is used in some medical procedures , but a few products were taken off the market because they were considered unsafe . The longevity of implants that use human tissue often is not as good , said Atlanta cosmetic surgeon Harold Brody . Nor is there any advantage , he said , to using human fat in cosmetic creams or lotions . `` They 're a little behind the times , '' Brody said . `` It makes a great moisturizer , but it has no advantages over good moisturizers that do n't use human fat . '' New York dermatologist Barry Goldman said he had never heard of human fat being sold on the black market . `` The idea that anybody would use an injectable where you did n't know where it came from would be laughable if it were n't unethical and potentially dangerous , '' he said . Still , the notion of black market human fat seemed possible to him . `` They steal kidneys , so why not this ? '' he asked . `` It is sick , but in the Holocaust they did use skin for lamps . ''
Peruvian police claiming to have arrested gang who are selling human fat . Police reported disappearances of at least 60 people . Two suspects arrested with a plastic bag with human fat in it .