A 20-year-old man has been placed in preventive detention in Caldas da Rainha following a violent robbery involving a threat with a knife.
The Leiria District Command of the Public Security Police (PSP) reported that the young foreign national allegedly approached another young person in the city center on Sunday, around 10:30 p.m., and with a knife held against the victim’s body, “took his mobile phone from his hands and fled.”
Upon learning of the incident, the Caldas da Rainha police station set up a “police operation on the ground that allowed, just a few minutes later,” the interception of the suspect. He was still in possession of the “weapon used and equipment violently taken from the victim.” Thus, he was arrested and taken to the police station.
According to the PSP, the young man “has an extensive criminal history, particularly involving various violent and serious crimes, including robberies from individuals, which have generated significant social fear and a sense of insecurity, particularly at night and within the younger community.”
Furthermore, he is “strongly indicated in illegal activities involving assault, stalking, aggravated death threats, and domestic violence.”
In the same statement, authorities recalled that, during the recent Feira dos Frutos event held in Caldas da Rainha, “the same individual had been caught in the act of committing the crime of resisting and coercing an officer, as he threatened to kill and insulted several police officers performing their duties, a situation previously communicated by the PSP.”
The investigation, carried out in coordination with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Caldas da Rainha, allowed for the gathering of evidence related to the various criminal activities committed by the individual.
On Tuesday, September 30, the defendant was brought before a Judicial Magistrate in the Leiria Court, where preventive detention was ordered and he was taken to the prison facility, where he will remain awaiting trial.
