The Central Criminal Court has decided to impose preventative detention on a woman arrested in May for participating in a criminal group that legalized immigrants illegally in exchange for large sums of money.
The suspect, who was previously under house arrest with electronic monitoring, has had her sentence increased.
The Polícia Judiciária (PJ) discovered that the woman, despite the restriction placed upon her after her arrest in May, continued to facilitate the fraudulent registration of immigrants in the National Health System.
She collaborated with two employees from a Family Health Unit who were detained this November. These administrative staff members are now suspended, having been accused of improperly issuing over 10,000 National Health System user numbers.
Two Ministry of Health workers have been detained for allegedly fraudulently registering thousands of immigrants in the National Health Service (SNS) in exchange for money.
“The ladies received information of the people to be registered, without fulfilling the criteria [such as proof of residence] and they were enrolled en masse. We are talking about a massive scale. We determined that they registered about 10,000 people in a year and a half,” stated a source from the PJ’s Central Directorate to Agência Lusa.
The same source noted that nearly 500 people had provided the same address on a street in Lisbon.
As part of Operation Gambérria, 16 people have been arrested and another 27 have been charged, including seven businesspeople, a lawyer, and an employee of the Directorate-General of Consular Affairs and Portuguese Communities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Network Legalized Illegal Immigrants on a “Massive” Scale
In May of this year, the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) dismantled an organized criminal group dedicated to the “irregular and massive” legalization of foreign nationals in Portugal, earning profits of millions of euros.
During Operation Gambérria, 13 people, including seven men and six women, were arrested, comprising several entrepreneurs, a lawyer, and an employee of the Directorate-General of Consular Affairs and Portuguese Communities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A total of 40 residential and non-residential searches were conducted in Coimbra, Espinho, Carregal do Sal, Amadora, Odivelas, Loures, and Lisbon.
The investigation began in September 2023. During this period, inspectors concluded that the criminal group had engaged in the “irregular and massive” legalization of foreign citizens in Portugal, gaining financial benefits amounting to millions of euros.
Immigrants, eager to pay high amounts for legalization in Portugal, were recruited by the group through complex schemes originating in their countries of origin, with the promise of providing a range of services such as obtaining employment contracts, Tax Identification Number (NIF), Social Security Identification Number (NISS), National Health System User Number (SNS), translation and certification of criminal records, opening bank accounts, proof of residency, among others.
The investigation also confirmed that many immigrants legalized by this group, despite being registered as living and working in Portugal, actually reside in other European countries.
