The six individuals detained during the Mãos Duras operation on June 11 were extradited to Portugal in August after legal procedures in Spain were completed.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) disclosed that, after appearing before the Criminal Instruction Court of Castelo Branco, three of the defendants received preventive detention, one was placed under house arrest with electronic monitoring, and two were subjected to periodic reporting and barred from contacting victims.
The investigation, known as Mãos Duras, took place in Logroño, Spain, where several searches targeting the dismantling of a group suspected of trafficking people for labor exploitation were conducted.
The group, consisting of five men and one woman aged between 22 and 54, had been recruiting vulnerable individuals in Portugal for years, offering false promises of well-paid employment for subsequent exploitation in agricultural work across various Spanish regions.
The suspects facilitated job placements with multiple employers, maintaining control over the victims by requiring them to live in deplorable housing and food conditions, constantly under threat and coercion, while keeping nearly all of the earnings by seizing money intended for their wages.
During the investigations in Spain, accompanied by the PJ, additional evidence was gathered, including a 9 mm pistol, and five victims, aged 25 to 58, were rescued.
Two of the victims had been kidnapped in Portugal at the end of April and were forced, under threat and coercion with a firearm, to travel to where they were eventually rescued.
