Brazil police: Remains found in Amazon those of missing British journalist

Brazilian police have officially identified the remains of British journalist Dom Phillips, who was found buried in the Amazon after going missing on a book research trip.

Phillips was identified through "forensic dentistry combined with forensic anthropology", the Federal Police said in a statement on Friday.

The grim result comes after the disappearance on June 5 of Phillips and his guide, indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, ignited an international outcry, with the United States calling for "accountability".

The police statement said it was still working on "complete identification" of the unearthed remains, which may include those of Pereira, who had received multiple death threats.

Veteran correspondent Phillips, 57, and Pereira, 41, went missing in a remote part of the rainforest rife with illegal mining, fishing and logging, as well as drug trafficking.

Ten days later, on Wednesday, a suspect named Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira — known as "Pelado" — took police to a place where he said he had buried bodies near the city of Atalaia do Norte, where the pair had been headed by boat.

'No criminal organisation involved'

Earlier on Friday, police said a probe pointed to the involvement of more individuals beyond the suspect who confessed, but added that the killers may have acted without involvement of a criminal organisation.

Police also said in a statement that they were still searching for the boat Phillips and Pereira were traveling in.

And on Friday night, police said they have issued an arrest warrant for a man identified as Jeferson da Silva Lima. It is not known how he is linked to the case.

Activists have blamed the killings on President Jair Bolsonaro for allowing commercial exploitation of the Amazon at the cost of the environment and law and order.

For his part, Bolsonaro sought to lay blame at the door of the men themselves for undertaking a "reckless" trip in an area where Phillips was "disliked".

Pereira, an expert at Brazil's indigenous affairs agency FUNAI, had received multiple threats from loggers and miners with their eye on isolated Indigenous land.

The Univaja association of Indigenous peoples, which had taken part in the search for the men, refuted the police's conclusion that the killers had acted alone.

Univaja said "a powerful criminal organisation (had) tried at all costs to cover its tracks during the investigation" of the double murder.

Experts say illegal fishing of endangered species in the Javari Valley takes place under the control of drug traffickers who use the sale of fish to launder drug money.