Article Author:
Reuters
BRASILIA — Brazilian federal police arrested five more men on Saturday in an investigation into the June killings of British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira in the Amazon rainforest. did.
Police said in a statement that Phillips and Pereira had been involved in illegal fishing in the remote Vale de Jabari region near the border with Colombia and Peru, where he disappeared on June 5. He said seven arrest warrants had been issued.
The area has been invaded by illegal fishermen, loggers and gold miners. Police say this is a major drug trafficking route.
Phillips, a freelance reporter and contributor to the Guardian and his Washington Post, was working with Pereira on research for a book on travel. Pereira is the head of an isolated tribe in the federal government and the most recently contacted tribe. Indigenous Peoples Agency Funai.
Two of the seven suspects had already been arrested. Rubén Dario da Silva Villar, known as "Colombia", and fisherman Amarildo Costa de Oliveira, known as "Perado". murder.
Colombia will be the leader and financier of armed criminal groups involved in illegal fishing smuggled into neighboring countries, according to police.
Three of the newly arrested men, whose names have not been released, are said to be relatives of Amarild and involved in covering up the bodies of Phillips and Pereira.
Pereira, a former senior official with the Federal Office of Indigenous Affairs Funai, had previously clashed with Amarild over illegal fishing within indigenous territory. , said the killer could not be identified. (Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Editing by David Gregorio)
