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Brazilian police arrested another five people in connection with the murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira on Saturday, and said one of the suspects already in custody was likely the leader of an illegal fishing mafia based in the Amazon region.
All three are related to Amarildo da Costa Oliveira, one of three men charged last month with the double murder in a case that shocked the world and highlighted growing insecurity in the densely forested region.
Phillips, 57, and Pereira, 41, went missing in the Javari valley in western Brazil on 5 June, at the end of a trip Phillips had arranged to report a book about sustainable development.
The men were ambushed early one morning as they headed down the Itaquaà river on their boat. Police believe their assailants shot them dead and then carried their bodies into the jungle, where they buried them in the hastily dug grave.
However, two of the suspects confessed to the crime and led police to where they had buried their bodies.
One single pirarucu can fetch up to $1,000 at markets in Brazil and Colombia and police believe criminal mafias partner with impoverished local fishers to hunt the animals, often in Indigenous reserves where access to outsiders is prohibited.
Local news reports said da Silva Villar provided the local fisher with boats, motors and bait.
The investigation continues.
