Police arrest 2nd suspect in disappearance of writer and expert in the Brazilian Amazon

A second suspect has been arrested by Brazilian police in connection with the disappearance of an Indigenous expert and a British journalist in a remote area of the Amazon.

The suspect, Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, 41, is a fisherman and brother of the man considered by police as the main suspect in the case so far, Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, also 41, whose nickname is Pelado.

Brazil's Federal Police also said in a statement Tuesday that they had seized ammunition and an oar, but did not say why the items were confiscated, who owned them or where they were found.

Oseney da Costa de Oliveira had told the Associated Press on Friday that he visited his brother in jail and was told that local police had tortured him on his boat, which was also seized by authorities.

The Federal Police did not immediately respond to a question asking why Oseney da Costa de Oliveira was named in its statement, which is not standard procedure for the force.

Indigenous people who were with expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips have said that Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira brandished a rifle at them the day before the two men disappeared. He has denied any wrongdoing.

The search for the missing men continued Tuesday, following the discovery of a backpack, laptop and other personal belongings submerged in a river Sunday.

Pereira, 41, and Phillips, 57, were last seen June 5 near the entrance of the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory, which borders Peru and Colombia.

Federal Police issued a statement Monday denying media reports that the two men’s bodies had been found.

Search teams are focusing their efforts on a spot in the Itaquai River, near the city of Atalaia do Norte, where volunteers from the Matis Indigenous group say that on Saturday they found a tarp from the boat used by the missing men.

The Javari Valley has seven known Indigenous groups — some only recently contacted, such as the Matis. The valley also has at least 11 uncontacted groups, making the region the largest concentration of isolated tribes in the world.

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 River is not a known drug-trafficking route.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.