The man, identified by police as Israel dos Santos Assis, was arrested in the city of Sao Francisco do Conde, in the Salvador metropolitan district, the capital of the Brazilian state of Bahia, accused of desecrating tombs in a local cemetery and using the flesh of corpses in his food. In social media videos found by police after his arrest, Israel, known in the city as “Pinguim,” teaches his followers how to use human flesh in the preparation of beans, one of the most consumed products in Bahia and throughout Brazil.
“Process (the flesh of the corpses) and throw it in the beans. But you can’t eat it, no, just chew it and then throw it away. Don’t swallow it, just chew it and throw it away. , it just tastes sweet,” says the man, in gruesome detail of the recipe he teaches his followers, showing how he uses the flesh of other people to “increase” the amount of beans he eats.
The Israeli practice was discovered after families of people recently buried in the Sao Francisco do Conde cemetery reported to police that the graves in which they had placed the remains of their loved ones had been desecrated and that some of the bodies had been stolen. After being detained, the man told police that he had been watching the traffic in the cemetery and had been selecting graves containing recently buried people because there was still a lot of flesh on the bones of these bodies.
In addition to desecrating graves and using human flesh for cooking, Israel also made money by committing other crimes with human remains. The detainee took agents to a mangrove swamp, a flooded area of the city, where he hid bags of human bones, which he admitted to police he sent to the Bahian capital, Salvador, for use in satanic rituals.