BRASILIA: Brazil’s federal law enforcement on Saturday (Aug 6) arrested five more men within an investigation into the murder of British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira in the Amazon . com rainforest in June.
Police said in a declaration that seven criminal arrest warrants were released for illegal angling in the Vale do Javari region, the particular remote area near to the border with Colombia and Peru exactly where Phillips and Pereira disappeared on Jun 5.
The location has been invaded by illegal fishermen, loggers and gold miners. Police say this is a key drug trafficking route.
Phillips, a freelance reporter who wrote for that Guardian and the Wa Post, was carrying out research for a guide on the trip with Pereira, a former mind of isolated and recently contacted tribes at federal native affairs agency Funai.
Two from the seven suspects were already under criminal arrest: Ruben Dario da Silva Villar, called “Colombia”, and angler Amarildo Costa de Oliveira, known as “Pelado” who was arrested in June as the major suspect in the homicide.
According to the law enforcement, Colombia would be the leader and financier of the armed criminal gang involved in illegal angling that was smuggled out to the neighboring countries.
Three from the newly arrested men, whose names were not revealed, are family members of Amarildo plus were involved in hiding the bodies associated with Phillips and Pereira, the police said.
Pereira, the former older official at the federal indigenous affairs company Funai, had earlier clashed with Amarildo over illegal angling within the indigenous area.
Federal prosecutors said that Phillips has been killed so that can not identify the killers.