Dom Phillips: Second man arrested after British journalist went missing in Amazon rainforest | World News

A second man has been arrested following the disappearance of British journalist Dom Phillips in the Amazon rainforest.

Mr. Phillips and Brazilian indigenous expert Bruno Pereira went missing more than a week ago on a remote stretch of the Itacoai River.

Police said the man in custody – Oseney da Costa de Oliveira – was the brother of the first man arrested.

Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, who goes by the nickname Pelado, remains in custody as the prime suspect in the case.

Describing the latest suspect’s arrest, investigative police officer Alex Perez said: “He did not resist arrest on suspicion of murder based on eyewitness accounts who placed two suspects at the scene. presumed to be a crime.”

Ammunition and paddles were also seized – but detectives have yet to confirm why the items were confiscated, where they were found, or to whom they belonged.

Mr Phillips, 57, and Mr Pereira, 41, were last seen on June 5 near the entrance to Brazil’s Javari Valley Indigenous Territory, which borders Peru and Colombia.

The da Costa de Oliveira brothers, both 41-year-old fishermen, are being held at the police station in Atalaia do Norte, the nearest town.

Pelado pointed a gun at Mr Phillips and Mr. Pereira a day before they disappeared, according to the natives who were with them.

But he denied doing anything wrong and claimed the military police tortured him to get a confession, his family said.

Meanwhile, the search for Mr. Phillips and Mr. Pereira appears to be nearing an end, as the area under consideration is shrinking.

‘We understand we’re getting to the end’

Eliesio Marubo, a lawyer who helped find the men, said the discovery of evidence helped narrow down the search.

“We understand that we are moving towards the end goal,” he said.

Police found a backpack, laptop and other personal items in a river on Sunday and it was reported that the men’s bodies had also been found, although the police The police denied this on Monday.

Federal police seized ammunition and a paddle on Tuesday but gave no further details about the items.

Read more:
Officials link British journalist’s disappearance in Brazil to ‘fish mafia’
Search teams find ‘apparently human’ remains where British journalist was last seen

The area where Mr. Phillips and Mr. Pereira went missing has been plagued by violent conflicts between fishermen, poachers and the government.

Mr. Pereira previously led the local office of the government’s indigenous agency, known as FUNAI, and was involved in a number of activities against illegal fishing.

There was also some violence as gangs scrambled for control of waterways for transporting cocaine.

The Javari Valley contains seven known indigenous groups – some of which have only recently been contacted – and at least 11 unrelated groups, which are home to the largest concentration of isolated tribes in the world.