Brazil police: Items owned by missing men found in Amazon
ATALAIA DO NORTE, Brazil — Search teams found a backpack, laptop and other personal items that belonged to Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and freelance British journalist Dom Phillips, who went missing in a remote area of Brazil’s Amazon a week ago, Federal Police said Sunday night.
Phillips’ backpack was discovered Sunday afternoon tied to a tree that was half-submerged, a firefighter told reporters in Atalaia do Norte, the closest city to the search area, which is near the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory. It is the end of the rainy season in the region and part of the forest is flooded.
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Officers with the Federal Police brought the items by boat to Atalaia do Norte later in the afternoon. In a statement a few hours later, they said they had identified the belongings of both missing men, such as Pereira’s health card and clothes.
A tarp from the boat used by the men was found Saturday by Matis volunteers, members of an Indigenous group of recent contact, one of them told The Associated Press.
“We used a little canoe to go to the shallow water. Then we found a tarp, shorts and a spoon,” said Binin Beshu Matis.
After that find, the search teams concentrated their efforts around that spot in the Itaquai river.
On Saturday, police reported finding traces of blood in the boat of a fisherman who is under arrest as the only suspect and organic matter of apparent human origin inside the river. Both materials are under forensic analysis, and no more details were provided.
Pereira, 41, and Phillips, 57, were last seen June 5 near the entrance of the Indigenous territory, which borders Peru and Colombia. They were returning alone by boat on the Itaquai river to Atalaia do Norte but never arrived.
That area has seen violent conflicts between fishermen, poachers and government agents. Violence has grown as drug trafficking gangs battle for control of waterways to ship cocaine, although the Itaquai is not a known drug trafficking route.
Authorities have said that a main line of the police investigation into the disappearance has pointed to an international network that pays poor fishermen to fish illegally in the Javari Valley reserve, which is Brazil’s second-largest Indigenous territory.
One of the most valuable targets is the world’s largest freshwater fish with scales, the arapaima. It weighs up to 200 kilograms (440 pounds) and can reach 3 meters (10 feet). The fish is sold in nearby cities, including Leticia, Colombia, Tabatinga, Brazil, and Iquitos, Peru.
