Colombian chef Oscar Rosas once appeared to have a promising future.
But after falling under the control of a notorious criminal gang, he claims he spent three years in captivity and was forced to cook human flesh for drug traffickers and international criminals.
Now 61, Rosas trained as a chef in New York before spending much of his 30s working in Europe at some of the world’s finest restaurants.
Despite that success, Rosas says his life began to unravel. A severe heroin addiction eventually cost him his career, his stability and almost everything he had.
With his professional life destroyed and nowhere else to turn, he returned to Colombia with no money and struggling with serious substance abuse.
He moved into the notorious ‘El Bronx’, a lawless district in central Bogotá that was then one of Colombia’s most dangerous open-air drug markets. The area was controlled by dealers, hitmen, prostitutes and heavily armed criminal organisations.
Rosas says it was there, at his most vulnerable, that he came under the control of Los Sayayines, a violent gang that acted as the neighbourhood’s enforcement arm.
According to Rosas, what followed was a descent into underground tunnels, alleged satanic rituals, organ trafficking and extraordinary violence.
Oscar Rosas, pictured during his career as a chef, trained in New York before spending much of his 30s cooking at leading restaurants across Europe
Rosas, now 61, says heroin addiction brought his life crashing down. He is pictured in an undated photograph during the worst period of his addiction
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Rosas described being forced to prepare human flesh as a stew for underground gatherings attended by international criminals. He says he had no choice but to take part in cannibalistic rituals for three years.
While living on the streets of El Bronx, Rosas says he accepted almost any work that could help pay for his addiction.
So when members of Los Sayayines offered him heroin and crack in return for cooking at a private dinner, he agreed.
El Bronx stood above a maze of hidden tunnels and passageways linked to run-down buildings, where criminal groups conducted their operations.
Rosas was told the meal would take place underground and that senior gang figures would be among the guests.
‘They had silverware, fine wines and champagne. They said guests were coming from all over the world. I told them I would cook whatever they wanted, and they said they would pay me in heroin,’ he recalled. ‘They provided everything I needed.’
What he did not know was that entering the tunnel would lead to his captivity. Rosas says he was subjected to an ordeal so traumatic and disturbing that he paused the interview to pray before continuing.
‘I went down into the tunnel, and there was a beautiful woman on my left. She was holding a dead chicken, wiped its blood on me and threw snails over me,’ he said.
Rosas has been sober for 11 years and now operates a rehabilitation centre for people battling addiction in Bucaramanga, Colombia
As Rosas stood frightened and confused, a member of Los Sayayines ran towards him and began punching him.
‘I said, “What are you doing? It’s me; you told me to come,” and he said, “I don’t care who you are; you are never leaving here,”’ Rosas recalled.
‘He told me I had to take part in a satanic ritual and that they would kill me if I refused.’
Soon afterwards, more people descended into the tunnel, murmuring words he could not understand.
‘They made me pick up a plastic bag filled with meat that they had brought down and place it on the dinner table.’
‘I opened the bag and they ordered me to serve what was inside on a gold platter.’
As he began removing the meat, Rosas says he became nauseated after realising what he believed he was being asked to do.
‘They were human remains,’ he recalled.
‘I turned around and said, “Brother, you’re crazy. How do you expect me to cook this?” He grabbed me, pointed a gun at my head and said, “Cook it, or we will eat you”.’
Rosas says he understood that refusing was not an option. ‘I felt like vomiting. I remember putting the knife into the dismembered body and preparing it as I would a stew. It was the hardest thing I have ever done,’ he said.
‘I survived the first ritual. They made me take a bite, and for the next three years, all I ate was human meat,’ Rosas claimed.
‘They would not allow me to eat anything else. I had no choice. I had to do it.’
‘There was a ritual every day. They would ask me to remove someone’s kidney in exchange for crack.’
Rosas said men wearing coats arrived every few days carrying large suitcases. According to his account, they collected organs he had been forced to remove from bodies.
‘Organ trafficking was taking place. It was the most horrific thing,’ he said.
‘Everyone down there ate the bodies. They said it was a ritual to protect their souls by capturing the souls of the dead.’
‘Those involved included guerrillas, paramilitaries, thieves, international criminals, drug dealers and powerful gang leaders.’
‘International criminals came from around the world to eat human flesh prepared as stew.’
‘We never ran out of bodies in that slum,’ he added. ‘Some days, seven or eight bodies came through.’
‘Some had been murdered, others had died from drug overdoses, and some were police officers,’ he recalled.
‘I lived that way for three years. I was desperate and needed to escape.’
After more than 1,000 days in captivity, Rosas says he saw no way out and attempted suicide with a broken glass bottle.
‘As I bled, I heard people saying they should prepare an acid bath to put me in. But one of the Sayayines took me out of the tunnel and abandoned me on the street.’
Rosas says he does not know why the man decided to spare him, but his ordeal was not over.
Seriously injured, he was found by police and taken to hospital.
However, when he told doctors what he said had happened during the previous three years, his story was considered so implausible that he was placed in a psychiatric ward.
‘No one believed me. They thought I was insane,’ he said. ‘I considered suicide. I did not want to face reality, and nobody believed me.’
Rosas says a group of Christian volunteers who began visiting him in hospital helped give him a renewed sense of purpose.
‘El Bronx’ was a lawless district in central Bogotá and, at the time, one of Colombia’s most dangerous open-air drug markets
In 2016, more than 2,500 police officers and heavily armed soldiers removed more than 1,000 homeless people and addicts from the area and rescued about 130 minors
Police search residents of El Bronx during a 2016 raid
Police officers stand in the area known as El Bronx in central Bogotá, Colombia, on Monday, May 30, 2016
‘They sat with me and prayed with me. They taught me about God,’ he said, explaining that he has since adopted a religious way of life. ‘I still have my demons, but I finally feel at peace.’
Eleven years after the ordeal ended, Rosas says he has remained sober for the same length of time. He now lives in Bucaramanga, in central Colombia, where he has opened a rehabilitation centre for people battling addiction.
Not long after Rosas escaped, the dangerous El Bronx district was dismantled by police.
In 2016, more than 2,500 police officers and heavily armed soldiers removed over 1,000 homeless people and addicts from the area and rescued about 130 minors, many of whom were suspected of being exploited as child prostitutes.
Special forces said at the time that dozens of arrests had been made and significant quantities of cocaine, marijuana and crack had been seized.
Authorities also discovered a concealed tunnel measuring 100 metres beneath a building occupied by squatters. They said criminal gangs had used it to move drugs, weapons and kidnapping victims into and out of the neighbourhood.
For years, reports of cannibalism and satanic rituals in the Colombian slum were dismissed as urban myths.
But earlier this year, Juliana Quitana, then head of the judicial police, said there was sufficient evidence to suggest that criminal gangs had used murder victims to ‘feed homeless people’ and ‘lure foreigners with cannibalistic tendencies.’