Brazilian gangs not implicated in Amazon murders: police

Brazil's federal police said Friday that the investigation into the murders of a British journalist and a Brazilian indigenous expert in the Amazon rain forest so far point to killers acting without the involvement of a criminal organization. Police said in a statement they were still searching with the help of local indigenous group UNIJAVA for the boat Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira were traveling in when the two men were last seen alive.

Brazil's federal police said Friday that the investigation into the murders of a British journalist and a Brazilian indigenous expert in the Amazon rain forest so far point to killers acting without the involvement of a criminal organization.

Police said in a statement they were still searching with the help of local indigenous group UNIJAVA for the boat Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira were traveling in when the two men were last seen alive. They added that their preliminary investigation suggests the crime involved more individuals beyond the suspect who confessed to the murders and that additional people could be arrested.

Phillips and Pereira disappeared in the remote Javari Valley bordering Peru and Colombia on June 5. Police said earlier this week that they recovered human remains from a grave in the jungle where they were led by a fisherman who confessed to killing the two men. The remains are still being identified.