Seven months after the murder in the Brazilian Amazon of the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian government employee Bruno Pereira traveling with him, the Brazilian police have identified a client “with a high probability”.
Colombian fishmonger Ruben Dario da Silva Villar is suspected of heading a criminal organization for illegal fishing in Javari Valley, Amazonas state police announced local time on Monday. He allegedly ordered the killings because of Pereira’s control and surveillance of illegal fishing.
Philips and Pereira disappeared on June 5 during an expedition in the Javari region, near the border with Peru. Phillips wrote for the British newspaper The Guardian. Pereira worked for the Brazilian government agency for indigenous affairs. They would conduct interviews for a book on conservation in the area, which is home to a lot of illegal fishing, logging, mining and drug trafficking. Two weeks later, the police announced that they had identified their remains.
Shortly after the double murder, a total of eight suspects were arrested, including a fisherman who, according to the police, would have confessed to the two murders. The police stated in a statement at the time that the perpetrators acted alone and that no criminal organizations were involved. Indigenous organizations immediately questioned this.
The Brazilian police now see Colombian Da Silva Villar as the mastermind behind the murders. He supplied the ammunition, had close telephone contact with the perpetrator of the murders and paid his lawyer, the federal police said at a press conference in Manaus.
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