On June 5, 2022, British journalist Dom Phillips and his Brazilian guide Bruno Pereira disappeared in Brazil’s Javari Valley, in the Amazon. Reporters investigated the illegal fishing gangs thought to be behind their deaths.

Dom Phillips photographed by Bruno Pereira, two days before their murder, as he speaks with “Caboco,” an illegal fisherman from the Javari Valley in the Amazon. (Photo: TV Globo/Globoplay)

In the latest crackdown on illegal fishing, Brazil’s environmental agency (Ibama) seized nearly one tonne of the protected arapaima fish - one the world’s largest freshwater species. During raids of a local market and several fishing boats, officers also found at least 800 kilos of seafood and 11 Amazon River turtles.

Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, who was last month murdered in the Amazon along with British journalist Dom Phillips, had found out that municipal officials were involved in illegal fishing and poaching on protected Indigenous land in the Amazon,Brazilian journalists say they were told by sources.