In a statement published on the website of the Évora Regional Attorney General’s Office, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) indicated that the men were charged with seven counts of armed robbery, 10 of kidnapping, 32 of document forgery, and one of money laundering.
The MP stated that the robberies occurred between July 2023 and April of this year, in Vendas Novas and Alcáçovas (Évora district), Castro Verde (Beja), Águas de Moura (Setúbal), Lourinhã (Lisbon), and Estói, in the Algarve.
“The criminal plan involved approaching bank branches during opening hours, displaying weapons, and targeting employees and customers present, threatening them and forcing them to hand over money,” it stated.
The MP highlighted that the defendants, currently in preventive detention, also forced bank employees and clients “to remain at the location against their will, some of whom were tied up and/or locked in the ATM compartments.”
Emphasizing that the men, of Brazilian nationality, “have no connection to Portugal,” the MP explained that both traveled “only for the time necessary to commit the crimes, with one even using a false identity.”
“The robberies yielded the defendants around 548,000 euros,” it noted, recalling that when they were arrested last April, “they had about 61,000 euros in cash, from the last robbery on April 7, 2025,” it specified.
According to the MP, on that day, besides the money, they also had a firearm used in the robbery, as well as fake passports and identification documents.
In the indictment, the Public Prosecutor petitioned for the defendants to be condemned to pay a total of 486,000 euros as forfeiture of the benefits gained from the crimes, representing the difference between what was stolen in the robberies and what was recovered.
One of the defendants, the MP noted, is also accused as a repeat offender, possessing “a long criminal history,” having been sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2012, and again in 2019 to 19 years and 11 months for the same types of crimes.
“And, despite being handed over to the Brazilian authorities in 2022 to serve his sentence, he managed to return to Portugal, where he entered just over a year later, starting a new wave of robberies,” it added.
The investigation was conducted by the Évora Regional Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DIAP), with the assistance of the Judiciary Police (PJ).
The period for opening the instruction is currently ongoing, after which, if not requested, the process will proceed to trial.
