After Attack , Reclusive Amazon Tribe Feared Missing

An uncontacted Amazon tribe that made headlines earlier this year after being filmed from the air is feared missing, after presumed drug traffickers overran the Brazilian guards posted to protect the tribe's  lands.

According to tribal advocacy group' Survival International', Brazilian officials can find no trace of the  indians in the area after heavily armed men ransacked the guard post in western Brazil about 32 miles (20 kilometers) from the Peruvian border . Like other uncontacted tribes,  the Indians live a traditional life in the forest and do not have contact with the outside world.

Workers from FUNAI  , the government bureau of Indian affairs , found a broken arrow  in one of the mens' backpack , raising fears for the tribe's safety.

"We think the Peruvians made the Indians flee,"  Carlos Travassos , the head of the government's isolated Indian Department , said in a statement .  "Now we have good proof . We are more worried than ever ."

Lost  tribe :

As many as 2,000 uncontacted Indians may live in the Javari Valley of the western Amazon, Survival International estimates . Brazilian officials keep an eye on tribal lands but do not force contact with the inhabitants . In February , Brazil's Indian  Affairs Department released aerial photos and film of the tribe that is now missing  , revealing thatched dwellings , tribe members in red body paint , and gardens full of  manico tubers and papaya .

Now the Indians seem to have disappeared . According to Survival international , police found a package containing 44  pounds (20 kilograms) of cocaine in the area. That could mean that the Envira River, where the Brazilian guard post is located , is now an entry point into Brazil for Peruvian cocaine smugglers , they said .

According to local reports, police have detained on man, a Portuguese national who was arrested and deported for drug trafficking in March. Jose Carlos Meirelies , who headed the remote guard post , is now back in the area and reported  that several groups of men armed with sub-machine guns and rifles are in the forest near the base.

Guns aren't the only threat  to uncontacted Indians. Common diseases  can also kill them  because they have not built up an immunity to the viruses and bacteria outside their forest  home . According to Survival International's uncontactedribes.org, there are about 100 uncontacted  groups in existence worldwide .

"This situation could be one of the biggest blows we have ever seen in the protection of remote Indian tribes in recent decades," Travassos said , referring to the possible drug traffickers." It's a catastrophe."