A main line of police investigation into the disappearance of a journalist and an Indigenous official in the Amazon points to an international network that pays fishermen to fish illegally in Brazil’s second-largest Indigenous territory, authorities say.
Vendor Antonio Rodrigues do Santos works at the fish market in Atalaia do Norte, Amazonas state, Brazil, Friday, June 10, 2022.
The only known suspect in the disappearances is fisherman Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, also known as Pelado, who is under arrest. According to accounts by Indigenous people who were with Pereira and Phillips, he brandished a rifle at them the day before the pair disappeared. He denies any wrongdoing and said military police tortured him to try to get a confession, his family told the Associated Press..
The AP had access to information police shared with Indigenous leadership. While some police, the mayor and others in the region link the pair's disappearances to a “fish mafia,” federal police do not rule out other lines of investigation. The area has a heavy narcotrafficking activity. He said he was taken to local federal police headquarters in Tabatinga three times, where he was beaten and left without food.
Lopes, who has five children, says his family’s primary income is $80 monthly from a federal social program. He also sells watermelon and bananas in Atalaia do Norte’s streets, which earned him around $1,200 last year. He claims he only fishes near his home to feed his family, not sell.