Federal authorities said on Friday that human remains found deep in Brazil's isolated Amazon region have been recognized as those of British journalist Dom Phillips. He disappeared two weeks ago together with a Brazilian indigenous expert.

Additional remains discovered near the western city of Atalaia do Norte are likely to belong to Bruno Pereira, a 41-year-old indigenous specialist, although they have not been officially recognized.

Phillips, 57, and Pereira were last seen in their boat on the Itaquai river on June 5, close to the entry to the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory on the border between Peru and Colombia. The case grabbed international notice swiftly.

Federal Police said that dental exams and anthropological forensics were used to confirm Phillips' remains. Identifying the remains is ongoing so that we may ascertain the cause of death, the dynamics of the crime, and the hiding of the bodies.

Wednesday, Brazil's federal police arrested two suspects, fishermen Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira and his brother, Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, in connection with their disappearance.

Amarildo, whose nickname is Pelado, admitted to shooting and killing both males on Tuesday night, according to the police. Then he brought officials to the location where human remains were discovered.

The Mirror, citing a story from local Brazilian station Band Jornalismo, stated the men "surrendered and were taken to a ditch, where they were executed and their bodies quartered and set ablaze."

Thursday, the remains arrived in the capital city of Brasilia for forensic analysis, according to officials. However, it did not appear that organized criminal gangs were engaged, according to the police.

The bodies were discovered in a region where violent clashes have occurred between fishers, poachers, and government authorities.

Pereira was employed by UNIVAJA, a local Indigenous association, which asserted that the government failed to evaluate the possibility that the men were targeted by a criminal organization financing illegal fishing and poaching in the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory.

"Because of this, Bruno Pereira became one of the main targets of this criminal organization, along with other UNIVAJA members who received death threats," stated the statement.

President Jair Bolsonaro, an outspoken adversary of journalists and Indigenous experts, was condemned for not reacting quickly enough to the disappearance of the two individuals. In an interview, he asserted without evidence that inhabitants in the region disliked Philips and that he should have been more cautious.

Indigenous individuals in the region initiated the search for journalists and specialists. Indigenous persons with Pereira and Phillips the day before Pelado vanished said he brandished a firearm at them.

On the river Itaquai, search teams recovered a tarp from the men's boat. On Sunday, they quickly discovered a rucksack, laptop, and other personal goods that had been submerged underwater.

Authorities have stated that one of their primary lines of inquiry points to an international "fish mafia" that pays impoverished fishermen to fish illegally in the Javari Valley reserve, the second-largest Indigenous area in Brazil.

The police have not ruled out alternative avenues of inquiry, such as narcotics trafficking.

Ned Price, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, stated on Friday that Phillips and Pereira were "murdered for advocating for the conservation of the rainforest and its indigenous peoples."