London, Apr 16 (IANS): A group of three people, including two women, in Brazil have been held for cooking their victims and turning them into pastries, a report in a British paper said.

Jorge Beltrao Negromonte, a karate expert, his wife Isabel Pires, 51 and mistress Bruna da Silva, 25, used to lure women to their house with the promise of work as a nanny, the Daily Mail reported.

According to the police, the trio would then kill their victims and use the flesh to make stuffed pastries known as empanadas. They sold it to neighbours in Pernambuco state in the northeastern part of the country.

Details of the horrific crimes emerged last week after officers came across a 50-page book belonging to da Silveira, which included drawings, and details of cannibalism.

Police found two bodies in the garden of a house belonging to the group. It is believed that the bodies could be of two women reported missing in the area recently.

They had been reportedly seen near the house of the suspects shortly before disappearing.

According to Inspector Wesley Fernandes in the city of Garanhuns, the Brazillian cannibals belonged to a sect that preached 'the purification of the world and the reduction of its population'.

The three were arrested last Wednesday and had confessed to the crimes. They planned to kill three women each year, he said.

They were tracked down after one of the arrested women used a credit card belonging to a victim who disappeared last month.