Brazilian police hunt pirates in yachting death

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Police said Saturday they were hunting for two men suspected in the slaying of Peter Blake, a yachting champion from New Zealand, in Brazil's remote northern Amazon after four others in custody confessed to their roles.

According to federal police, masked pirates boarded Blake's yacht near the mouth of the Amazon River near Macapa on Wednesday night, intending to rob it. Blake, who had been named special envoy for the United Nations Environment Program earlier this year, was reportedly shot while trying to resist.

"We know who they are, and it's only a matter of time before they are caught," federal police agent Jose Araujo said by phone from Macapa, the capital of Amapa state 1,800 miles northwest of Sao Paulo.

Araujo said the two suspects still at large are 20-year-old Rubens da Silva Souza, who ferried the gang to Blake's yacht, and Jose Pantoja da Costa, the brother of one of the four men in custody.

Blake, who led New Zealand to America's Cup victories in 1995 and 2000, was on a worldwide expedition to monitor global warming and pollution when he died.

Police detained seven men on Friday, two days after Blake was killed.

Araujo said four of the men confessed to taking part and were charged with "robbery followed by death," a crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison, the maximum penalty in Brazil.