Police in Brazil are to indict a Colombian fish trader as being the alleged mastermind behind the deaths of British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. Federal police officials said at a media conference in Manaus yesterday (January 23) that Ruben Dario da Silva Villar provided the ammunition to kill the pair, made phone calls to the confessed killer before and after the crime and paid his lawyer, although Mr Villar has denied any wrongdoing.
Police report that fisherman Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira has confessed to shooting both victims. He has been under arrest since shortly after the killings in early June.
He and three other relatives are accused of participating in the crime. They all live in an impoverished riverine community inside a federal agrarian reform settlement between the city of Atalaia do Norte and Javari Valley Indigenous Territory.
