Two suspects of killing Pereira and Phillips work for the city hall of Atalaia do Norte

Photo: Federal Police agents hold four family members of the man who confessed to killing Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips.

Arrested by the Federal Police a month ago, Janio Freitas de Souza and Otavio da Costa Oliveira have been hired during the administration of Denis Linder Rojas de Paiva (Uniao Brasil party) as mayor of Atalaia do Norte, in the state of Amazonas. Oliveira is also one of the brothers of Amarildo da Costa Oliveira, or ‘Pelado,’ who pleaded guilty of the killing of British journalist Dom Phillips and the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira.

Souza and Oliveira are hired as general services aid (under registration number 8888) and microscope expert (registration number 8356), respectively, in the city hall's Interior and Health departments. According to the payroll last July, they received wages of 1,212 BRL and 1,750 BRL. Although the Federal Police arrested them on August 5, 2022 – exactly two months after the killings of Phillips and Pereira – the two temporary servants were not dismissed from their city hall roles at least until September 1, 2022.

The information was collected on the Official Journal and the Transparency Portal of the municipality. Atalaia do Norte is located 1,136 kilometers from Manaus, the state of Amazonas capital. The Tim Lopes Program of the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) checked the data available on both internet-based sources using Souza and Oliveira's names and registration numbers.

The data shows that the monthly staff report was not updated in August. The payroll information on the website is available from January to July only. On its hand, the Official Journal has disclosed the movements of the municipal executive branch without indicating the dismissals of the two temporary servants. In addition to Oliveira and Souza, the search revealed another name of the Amarildo family on the city hall payroll: Manuel Vitor Sabino da Costa, Amarildo's uncle. Known as "Churrasco," he would have a meeting with Phillips and Pereira in the morning they were killed. 

Photo: Print screen of the Monthly Report for Simple Conference-July-2022 of THE CITY HALL OF ATALAIA DO NORTE, showing the names of Janio Souza, Otávio Oliveira, and Manuel da Costa. 

Costa was not arrested, but he is still being investigated for suspected involvement in ambushing Phillips and Pereira. The Federal Police and the Federal Public Prosecution Office have separated the investigation into two inquiries. One of them clears the details around the murders and the role of each suspect. Three people have already been charged in connection to the killings: Amarildo de Oliveira; his brother, Oseney Costa de Oliveira; and Jefferson Lima da Silva, known as 'Pelado da Dinha.'

While investigating the murders, Federal Police officers found in the second inquiry the involvement of residents of the communities of Sao Gabriel and Sao Rafael, on the banks of the Itacoaí River, in invasions for illegal fishing and poaching in the Javari Valley Indigenous Land. As an indigenous expert, Pereira had denounced 'Pelado' as the group's leader for at least two years. Due to this specific part of the investigation, the Federal Police carried out an operation on August 5, 2022.

At the time, officers went to Sao Gabriel and Sao Rafael, where they arrested Janio Freitas de Souza, Laurimar Lopes, Otávio Costa de Oliveira, Amarílio Oliveira, and Elicley Costa de Oliveira, on charges of criminal association. The last three are brothers of 'Pelado,' who pleaded guilty to the killings. In Elicley's house, officers had previously seized two canoes, saws, machetes, and a chainsaw supposedly used to quarter the bodies of Pereira and Phillips. 

In addition to the five men arrested on August 5, 2022, the Federal Police included in the inquiry on criminal association for illegal fishing the names of Amarildo' Pelado' and the drug dealer Rubens Villar Coelho, appointed as the financier for illicit expeditions for fishing and poaching on the Indigenous Land. According to the investigation, Amarildo acted as a handyman for Coelho in Atalaia do Norte.   

Abraji sent an e-mail to the mayor's office but did not get a reply. The relationship between mayor Denis de Paiva and Amarildo Oliveira and his family became evident days after the disappearance of Pereira and Phillips on June 5, 2022. While Federal and Civil Police officers searched for the pair's whereabouts, the mayor visited the community of Sao Gabriel, on the banks of the Itacoaí River, to question the arrest of Pelado, as revealed by the G1 website.

As Abraji revealed on June 28, 2022, Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira was mapping out the links between the Atalaia do Norte's city hall and the group involved in illegal fishing and poaching in the Javary Valley Indigenous Land. Pereira had investigated the network for at least two months in partnership with environmental activists and the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (Univaja).

Pereira was used to conducting parallel investigations since he began working on coordinating the Brazilian government's Indigenous agency, Funai, in the region. In 2013, he mapped a group of merchants from the municipality involved in the retention of cards of Indigenous people benefited by assistance programs, including the federal benefit called Bolsa Família ("Family Grant").

The detailed survey listed a network of merchants, with their respective businesses identified by geo-referencing data. The report was forwarded to the Feral Public Prosecutor's Office and the Federal Police, resulting in a large police operation. Among those mentioned in Pereira's investigation was Denis de Paiva, owner of the city's only lottery outlet and current mayor of Atalaia do Norte.

At the time, Abraji also tried to listen to the mayor about the seizure of Indigenous people's cards in his lottery outlet, but he did not reply. On occasion, the press office of the city hall informed that Denis de Paiva was in Manaus to obtain resources for the municipality. Nevertheless, at the same time, the Folk Festival of Parintins took place - rumors have it that the mayor traveled to the festival.

Check out the video below on the path and the final moments of the life of the journalist Dom Phillips and the indigenous expert Bruno Pereira:

Raising prices of pirarucu and tracajá  

The Federal Police's actions around the Javari Valley Indigenous Land did not end fishing and poaching expeditions in the reserve. Still, they resulted in increased prices of pirarucu and tracajá turtles, which are much appreciated in the region. With the gradual decrease in the number of officers and servants from Funai and Ibama in the region, offers of these products have started to pop up again in WhatsApp groups.

Before the killings of Pereira and Phillips, one of these groups used Janio de Souza as its leading supplier. As written above, Souza was a temporary servant in the city hall even after the killings. The information was confirmed to the Abraji Tim Lopes Program by one of the activists who collaborated with Bruno Pereira in his survey on the links between the servants and illegal activities.

On August 31, 2022, a member of the Whatsapp group called Mercadinho Barroso, known as 'Neguinho Salvador,' posted an image of four tracajá turtles with an offer and asking anyone interested to send him a private message. According to the environmental activist, the turtles were sold for up to 250 BRL.

 Photo: Whatsapp Print Screen

"Before the deaths of Pereira and Phillips, they were offered for 100 BRL and up to 150 BRL. Now they can cost up to 250 BRL," says an activist who sent the images to Abraji under the condition of anonymity.

According to them, the gradual decrease in the inspection structures has further aggravated the situation in the Javari Valley. "We have reports of the appearance of Indigenous groups isolated within lands of ethnic groups that are used to contact White men. This is due to further invasions," they say.

As Abraji reported in August, poachers were offering sloth and woolly monkey offsprings in Atalaia do Norte and Benjamin Constant – a city located 30 minutes away by boat from the port of Tabatinga, from where the animals are taken to Colombia. "A woolly monkey infant was on offer for 200 BRL," said the activist then.

The death of the British journalist was the fifth included in the Tim Lopes Program. Dom Phillips accompanied the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira on an expedition through the Javari Valley. A long-time contributor to the British outlet The Guardian, Phillips was writing a book on how to save the Amazon, in which he referred to human rights violations in the region.