Amazon: Five people have been arrested in connection with the murders in the Amazon

Brazilian police said on Saturday they had arrested five new suspects in the investigation into the murder of a British journalist and a Brazilian indigenous expert in the Amazon, and nine others on suspicion of involvement in an illegal fishing network.

Federal police say they have found “strong evidence” that one of the four suspected drug traffickers was a “leader and financial backer” in the June murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira. In illegal fishing in the area where the double murder took place”.

This Colombian, Ruben Dario da Silva Villar, led the group “responsible for selling large quantities of fish for export to neighboring countries.”

The five new detainees include three relatives of local fisherman Amarilto “Belado” Costa de Oliveira, the first suspect arrested. According to the police, they are believed to have helped him hide the bodies in the bushes.

Dom Phillips, 57, and Bruno Pereira, 41, were gunned down on June 5 on the edge of the Javari Valley, a vast, isolated jungle on Brazil’s border with Peru and Colombia that has seen illegal fishing, logging and mining. , and drug trafficking.

Bruno Pereira fought against illegal fishing in this indigenous reserve of the Javari Valley, which has the largest concentration of tribes unconnected to the rest of the world. Dom Phillips, a freelance writer for the “Guardian”, “New York Times” and other major newspapers, traveled with him to research his book “How to Save the Amazon”.