The pirate who killed New Zealand sailor Sir Peter Blake has been captured after 15 years on the run.

Jose Irandir Cardoso was arrested by military police who intercepted him at a routine stop on the Brazilian island of Marajo.

The Daily Mail reports he was carrying his brother's ID and police only discovered his true identity after checking his fingerprints.

Cardoso, one of the Amazon pirates jailed over the December 2001 killing of Kiwi hero Blake, vanished after being sentenced to 32 years in prison.

Local reports said he had been on the run for 16 years.

Last night he was being held at a prison in Breves on Marajo, a large river island bordered by the mouth of the Amazon river in northern Brazil, after being paraded in front of local media by police who captured him.

Sir Peter Blake's killer. (Photo \ NZ Herald)

The violent death of Sir Peter Blake, the world's most famous sailor at the time, had international repercussions

 

The 53-year-old, knighted in 1995, was monitoring global warming and pollution on the Amazon for the United Nations when his boat called Seamaster was attacked by armed robbers wearing balaclavas and crash helmets.

Blake was fatally shot in the back by one of the assailants after a rifle he had used to defend himself and his crew malfunctioned.

The attackers fled with an outboard motor and some watches after injuring two other crew members with knives.

Ricardo Colares Tavares, the man who shot the Kiwi sailor dead, was later sentenced to 37 years in prison.

Jose Irandir Cardoso, found guilty of armed robbery leading to death along with five accomplices from a gang called the Water Rats, was jailed for 32 years.

Sir Peter Blake was shot to death in the Amazon River in 2001.

Sir Peter made his name in the Whitbread Round-the-World race where in 1989-90 he skippered Steinlager 2 to an unprecedented clean sweep of line, handicap and overall honours.

As co-skipper of ENZA New Zealand he also held the Jules Verne Trophy from 1994 to 1997 by setting the fastest time around the world.

 

However, it was in the America's Cup where he became a national icon.

Brought in at the last minute for New Zealand's 1992 campaign, Sir Peter was Team NZ's head when 'Black Magic' swept Dennis Connor's Young America 5-0 in 1995 to bring the Cup to New Zealand for the first time.

Blake's iconic 'lucky red socks' became synonymous with Team NZ and the America's Cup during the 1990s.

In the 2000 America's Cup, Team New Zealand, still led by Blake, became the first non-American team to successfully defend the Americas Cup, beating Prada 5–0. Following this defence, Sir Peter stood down from the team.

- additional reporting, NZ Herald