“I apologize to all the victims I have wronged. I also want to apologize to the Polícia Judiciária institution for misusing its good name and work to commit illegal acts,” stated the defendant during the first session of the trial held at the Criminal Court of Guimarães in Braga district.
The group, consisting of six defendants, three of whom are in preventive detention, is accused of robbing several businessmen in the North region, posing as PJ inspectors with vests, badges, and counterfeit cards of this police investigation force, armed with fake search warrants.
The victims, believing these were legitimate police operations, allowed the defendants to enter their residences for supposed searches, during which they seized money and valuables, including jewelry and watches, valued at over 430 thousand euros.
The panel of judges separated one of the defendants from the case, who is in France awaiting an extradition decision to Portugal, leaving five defendants in the trial.
In court, the defendant confessed that all the accused consumed narcotics and some also had gambling addictions, emphasizing that during the robberies, they never used weapons or any form of physical violence.
In one of the heists, on June 25, 2024, the defendant stated that it was a cousin of a textile entrepreneur from Fafe, Braga district, who proposed robbing the entrepreneur’s house, which had allegedly secured 300 thousand euros without invoices a few days earlier and therefore was “loaded” with money.
The defendant mentioned that the victim’s cousin handed them a fake search warrant on an A4 sheet, alongside some “very rudimentary” cards saying PJ, with a name and address below.
“We went to Fafe. We planned to act like PJ, but without weapons. All primitive, archaic. Around 07:30, we rang the bell, and a lady opened the door. I was completely drugged to have the courage to do that. I said: we are the police, and we have a search warrant for searches due to an anonymous report of tax fraud,” the defendant recounted to the court.
In the house, the defendants seized mobile phones, gold items, and jewelry, while at the factory, where they went next, they were handed around eight thousand euros.
The defendants also requested to search a high-end car, with the victim questioning how they knew he had a Jaguar.
“You know we do our investigation,” one of the defendants replied.
Another incident occurred in July 2024, in Santa Maria da Feira, Aveiro district, when the defendants went “seeking 1.3 million euros,” information reportedly provided by a former employee of a businessman in the construction sector.
For this heist, “more appropriate cards” were used for the PJ, as well as blue vests similar to PJ’s, which “also has black vests,” and a search warrant for tax fraud.
“We wandered lost for about an hour. We stopped at a café, asked around, and reached the right place. A staff member opened the door and said the boss had been on vacation in Brazil for two weeks. We found nothing. I took a ‘Dupont’ lighter, but was deceived. It was ‘made in China,'” stated the defendant, who later admitted they took around eight thousand euros found in the office.
The presiding judge asked how he knew PJ also has black vests. “I found out when they came to my house [at the time of arrest],” the defendant replied.
The judge also questioned why the search warrants only mentioned the crime of tax fraud. “We went online and searched: crime for illegal money, and tax fraud came up,” the defendant explained.
