Brazilian police detain several suspects in death of journalist and indigenous man in the Amazon

Brazil’s Federal Police (PF) arrested five suspects Saturday in the investigation into the murder of journalist Dom Phillips and indigenist Bruno Pereira, whose bodies were found on June 5 in the Amazon.

Brazilian authorities have carried out this Saturday an operation against illegal fishing in the Vale do Javari region with the aim of carrying out seven preventive arrest warrants, according to a statement from the PF.

Two of the people against whom the Supreme Court has issued preventive detention are already in custody. They are Amarildo Costa de Oliveira, alias ‘Pelado’ and suspected of involvement in the crime; and Ruben Dario da Silva Villar, a Colombian citizen known as ‘Colombia’, arrested for use of false documents.

The PF operation has indicated that the suspect ‘Colombia’ would be the “leader and financier of an armed criminal association dedicated to the practice of illegal fishing in the region.” Colombia’ was allegedly responsible for commercializing large quantities of fish for the purpose of exporting them to neighboring countries.

Three of the other five detainees are relatives of ‘Pelado’ and are being investigated for participating in the concealment of the victims’ bodies.

“All are being investigated for associating with ‘Colombia’ to carry out illegal fishing in the region,” the PF announced, before adding that “investigations are continuing to fully clarify the case.”

Bruno and Dom were killed in the early morning of June 5, recalls the newspaper ‘Folha de Sao Paulo’. The bodies were found ten days later, on one of the banks of the Itaquaí river, near the community where two of the three accused lived.