The Polícia Judiciária (PJ) dismantled a transnational criminal organization operating in the northern region of the country on Wednesday. A total of seven suspects were arrested, and 45 individuals and companies were charged.
In a statement sent to newsrooms, the PJ clarified that the “Cash-a-lot” operation executed 67 search warrants “for the alleged crimes of criminal association, money laundering, tax fraud, and document forgery.” The alleged crimes were committed by a transnational organization “controlled by national and foreign citizens.”
Searches were carried out in the municipalities of Espinho, Paredes, Póvoa de Varzim, Porto, Valongo, Vila do Conde, Vila Franca de Xira, and Vila Nova de Gaia.
“The organization in question used the national banking system to support the money laundering process, a procedure based on the successive creation of companies and bank accounts held by them, where the proceeds mostly from Trade Based Money Laundering (a process to disguise profits from illicit activities as legitimate funds using international trade transactions to conceal the origin of the money) flowed,” explained the authority in the same note.
The amounts acquired through the scheme were “continuously deposited in bank accounts created for this purpose” and “were then transferred to corresponding accounts domiciled in third-party European countries.”
During the proceedings, “six urban properties, nine high-end vehicles, 74 bank accounts controlled by suspects in national territory, and the balances of bank accounts domiciled in 11 European countries, totaling 67 bank accounts,” were seized and subject to arrest.
The PJ also seized approximately 300,000 euros in cash, “various documentation related to the facts, IT material, bank and telecommunications cards, false documentation, and firearms.”
According to the investigation, “over 24 months, more than 141 million euros were deposited in cash, with a total of 209 million euros moved through the ‘vehicle accounts.'”
The police operation involved about 170 agents from the PJ’s Northern Directorate, as well as the Braga and Vila Real units, with support from the Autoridade de Segurança Alimentar e Económica (ASAE). Also present during the proceedings were two magistrates from the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the DIAP Regional do Porto.
The detainees will be brought before the competent judicial authority at the Criminal Investigation Court of Porto for the first interrogation and application of coercive measures.
The inquiry is overseen by the Departamento de Investigação e Ação Penal (DIAP) Regional do Porto.
The searches were first reported by Jornal de Notícias, which stated that “at the top of the network is a businessman of Chinese origin, suspected of being the architect of the money laundering organization, gathered almost daily from other businessmen.”
Initially, it was indicated that the searches were focused on the industrial area of Varziela, in Vila do Conde, where there is a large concentration of Chinese traders dedicated to importing and reselling various products, also functioning as a large commercial entrepot.
In 2020, more than 1,500 Chinese citizens lived and worked in Vila do Conde, most of them engaged in commercial activities in the Varziela industrial area, where they managed about 200 warehouses, in what is the largest Chinese business center in Portugal.
Today, the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) is conducting dozens of searches as part of an investigation into an alleged criminal network of money laundering and tax evasion operating from the industrial area of Varziela in Vila do Conde.
Lusa | 15:27 – 10/12/2025
