The Judiciary Police conducted searches this morning in Lisbon, Nazaré, and Caldas da Rainha, including the Câmara Municipal da Nazaré, the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), and Docapesca, over suspicions of economic participation in a business, forgery, corruption, and money laundering.
In a statement released in the late afternoon, Docapesca–Portos e Lotas, SA stated that the searches conducted by Judiciary Police inspectors and a Public Prosecutor’s Office attorney aimed to seek specific computer data for confiscation.
According to Docapesca, the searches are part of an ongoing investigation initiated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in 2021, prior to the current Board of Directors’ term.
The actions, which concluded at around 14:00, were also carried out simultaneously at Docapesca’s Nazaré facilities, with the company ensuring “full cooperation and maintaining availability to provide all information deemed relevant by the authorities for the process.”
In a statement issued in the morning, the Judiciary Police detailed that 15 searches took place, both residential and non-residential, at a public capital anonymous society, a municipal chamber, five state agency facilities, the headquarters of three commercial companies, and a tourist development.
A source linked to the process told Lusa that the Câmara Municipal da Nazaré, the Portuguese Environment Agency, Docapesca, the Directorate of Lighthouses, and the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Regional Coordination and Development Commission were searched.
“The matter concerns the negotiation of a 40-year concession contract regarding private use of a maritime public domain area, which includes the public water domain, located in the Porto de Abrigo da Nazaré port area, corresponding to the rehabilitation and preservation of nine touristic houses,” explained the Judiciary Police in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) reported today that it cooperated with the Judiciary Police during the searches at its facilities, clarifying that it had no management, administration, or licensing duties related to the investigated matter.
The Nazaré Municipality also confirmed the searches at the office, with former president Walter Chicharro clarifying that it was limited to urban planning licensing for the properties investigated by the Judiciary Police, which are state-owned.
Contacted by Lusa, Walter Chicharro, who was the Nazaré mayor at the time of the events, explained it was “a process where the municipality’s involvement is merely urban planning licensing.”
According to the former mayor, “the properties belong to the Central State,” and the concession contract “was launched by the Central State through Docapesca,” with “zero intervention from the Nazaré Municipality in all legal proceedings regarding the concession of the nine houses,” as it “would require a Central State entity to initiate the tendering process.”
Operation “Dunas” involved three Public Prosecutor’s Office magistrates, 40 criminal investigators, and scientific police experts from the Judiciary Police, with support from the Central Directorate of the Judiciary Police, the Technological IT Expertise Unit, and the Financial and Accounting Expertise Unit.
