Brazil's Bolsonaro says mystery oil slicks on beaches likely have criminal origin

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday that mysterious oil slicks polluting the country's northeastern beaches were likely to have been left there criminally.

Had the oil originated from a shipwreck, as Bolsonaro posited on Monday, it would still be seeping onto the beaches, he said.

The oil has washed up in recent weeks on more than a hundred beaches in nine northeastern states from Maranhao down to Bahia. Its origin has yet to be explained.