Suspected cannibal, Begoleã Mendes Fernandes, caught at airport with ‘suspicious meat’

Suspected cannibal caught at airport with ‘suspicious meat’.

A Brazilian murder suspect — who police believe may have engaged in “cannibal practices” — has been arrested at an airport in Portugal with a suitcase containing “suspicious meat” and bloodstained clothing, officials said.

Begoleã Mendes Fernandes, 26, was taken into custody at Lisbon Airport on Monday after getting off a flight from Amsterdam, where he was suspected of killing 21-year-old Alan Lopes a day earlier.

Portuguese media reported that the pieces of meat that were found inside a plastic bag stuffed into Fernandes’ luggage could be human flesh.

The meat will be analyzed in a laboratory to determine its origin, reported Fox News Digital.

Officials with the Portuguese Borders and Immigration Service initially detained Fernandes on suspicion of carrying forged documents, including an Italian identity card and other paperwork bearing a name different than his own.

Dutch police have confirmed Lopez was the victim of a 'serious violent crime.'

Portuguese press have said investigators suspect the killer committed cannibalism.

The suspect held at Lisbon Airport was on a stopover and going to board a flight to Belo Horizonte in his homeland of Brazil.

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.'

Respected Portuguese daily Jornal de Noticias reported he may have the victim of cannibalism.

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.'

The investigation continues.