Lima, Peru, 2004: The body of a decapitated baby boy is found on a hilltop, surrounded by flowers, a liquor bottle and a container of blood, apparently the victim of a ritual sacrifice to appease a pre-Columbian earth god.
New Jersey, USA, 2002: A Palo Mayombe sect temple basement is raided by police, who find human body parts and the remains of several animals seemingly sacrificed by worshippers.
London, England, 2001: The dismembered torso of a five-year-old boy is found floating in the Thames, the victim of a Ju Ju ritual sacrifice...
Around the world, humans are being trafficked, kidnapped, sold and enslaved, for the specific purpose of sacrifice. Mass-scale migration has seen these gruesome techniques exported from the land of the Aztecs - and finding their way into Britain and the US. Voodoo priests in London have been linked with ritual murders. And a recent leaked police commissioned report found that witchcraft, voodoo-related abuse and murder, are rife in the UK.
Jimmy Lee Shreeve takes us on a journey into the darkest corners of the world, following the initial investigations of Scotland Yard into the Thames murder, travelling to South Africa and then Nigeria, where the full horror of a wide 'export trade' in humans to Britain for sacrifice is unveiled. In the US, Palo Mayombe, a Cuban religious cult, is linked with a score of sacrifices and murders. In Mexico, a devotee of Palo Mayombe, Adolof de Jesus Constanzo, was responsible for torturing and boiling in a cauldron more than a dozen victims.
Across South America, sacrifices are commonplace. Most are done on behalf of drug barons and millionaires, who want to atone for their sins by offering the Gods a 'gift'. And across Asia, similar stories are found. In Africa, and Britain, HIV-positive African males sacrifice young boys to 'cleanse' themselves of the disease.
By turns gruesome, disturbing and intriguing, BLOOD RITES reveals the true, untold story of a violent tradition taking place terrifyingly close to home.
