Date in Portugal
Clock Icon
Portugal Pulse: Portugal News / Expats Community / Turorial / Listing

Prosecutor accuses nine defendants of a network that robbed jewelry stores in Alto Minho

The public prosecutor’s office in Porto has linked defendants, currently in preventive detention, to an attempted robbery in Vila Verde in February 2024 and a jewelry store heist in Valença in November of the same year, which occurred while they were under investigation.

Prosecutors allege that “since before February 2024, four of the defendants (one of whom served as the leader) residing in the Galician region, formed an organization aimed at committing crimes against property and people, targeting jewelry stores, particularly in the Alto Minho region.”

“Under the group’s leader’s command,” the defendants recruited “additional operatives from other nationalities residing in different countries to carry out the robberies,” the prosecutor’s office stated.

Utilizing incentives, the defendants “established a physical structure for crime execution—renting locations for executing defendants” and “renting successive vehicles for their transport.”

They also procured “a wide range of goods and instruments for executing the crimes (such as firearms, balaclavas, and gloves)” and organized “incursions on the targets.”

According to the prosecutors, in the early hours of February 19, 2024, “the operational members of the group, using a vehicle with license plates from another stolen vehicle, approached a jewelry shop in Vila Verde after it had closed.”

They intended “to seize goods and valuables but were thwarted by the resistance from the site’s security/locking systems.”

On November 14, 2024, at 18:15, “driving a vehicle with false plates (which they had previously stolen), they went to a jewelry store located in a shopping mall in Valença, which was still open to the public.”

“Brandishing an air pistol, they entered the jewelry store, approached the owners, and forced them, at gunpoint, into the safe area,” the report continued.

One of the owners “resisted,” leading one of the suspects to punch him twice in the face, “causing him to fall to the ground and continue the physical assault.”

“Meanwhile, as two other defendants stood guard, a third entered the jewelry store with a firearm and a screwdriver, beginning to smash display cases containing numerous gold items worth 400,000 euros,” it noted.

At that moment, “they were surprised by the authorities’ presence, preventing them from taking the intended goods and valuables.”

The leader “had in his possession an amount of 118,830 euros, generated and used by the organization, and the prosecution has sought to seize this amount for the state.”

The Prosecutor’s Office in Viana do Castelo has charged “nine defendants with co-committing: a crime of criminal association, two crimes of theft, a crime of attempted aggravated theft, an attempted aggravated robbery, two crimes of aggravated forgery or counterfeiting of documents, and a crime of possession of a prohibited weapon.”

Leave a Reply

Here you can search for anything you want

Everything that is hot also happens in our social networks