28 February 2023 , 18:24
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A suspected cannibal has been arrested at an airport after police found 'suspicious meat' in his suitcase.
The 25-year-old, named locally as Begolea Mendes Fernandes, was held at Lisbon Airport after arriving on a flight from Amsterdam.
The contents of his luggage, said to include meat that detectives fear could be human, are now being analysed at a specialist lab.
Fernandes is suspected of killing a 21-year-old called Alan Lopes in the Dutch capital on Sunday.
Dutch police have confirmed he was the victim of a “serious violent crime”.
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Portuguese press said investigators suspect the killer committed cannibalism.
The man held at Lisbon Airport was on a stopover and going to board a flight to Belo Horizonte in his homeland of Brazil.
The 25-year-old, named locally as Begolea Mendes Fernandes, was held at Lisbon Airport after arriving on a flight from Amsterdam (Corbis via Getty Images)He is now under police arrest at Santa Maria Hospital in the Portuguese capital and is expected to face extradition to Holland.
A spokesman for the Portuguese Borders and Immigration Service said: “A 26-year-old man suspected of murder in the Netherlands was arrested at Lisbon Airport on Monday.
“He was wearing clothes with blood on them and had a package containing pieces of meat.
“He was held at the airport’s border control after the authorities became suspicious about the legality of the Italian ID card he presented.
“He was initially detained over suspicions he was travelling on falsified documents before it was subsequently discovered he was suspected of committing a homicide in the Netherlands the day before.”
The murder victim was found dead at the house he shared with relatives including his mother and two sisters.
A spokesman for Dutch police said: “On Monday afternoon a 25-year-old man was arrested at the airport in Lisbon in collaboration with the Portuguese authorities and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee.
“The man is suspected of having been involved in the death of a 21-year-old man who was found in a home on Vegasstraat in North Amsterdam on the evening of Sunday February 26.”
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