Year: 2017

The Council of Ministers today changed the new statute of the GNR, which was vetoed by the President of the Republic, so that in the force only the colonels with basic training in the military academy can be promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.

According to the communiqué of the Council of Ministers, the paragraph that allowed ungraded military personnel in the Military Academy to rise to the top of the GNR hierarchy has been eliminated.

On 14^th March the President Rebelo de Sousa vetoed the new Statute of the Military of the Republican National Guard, considering that the possibility of promotion to the post of Brigadier General “can create serious problems” for the corporation and the Armed Forces.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stated in a message published on the portal of the Presidency of the Republic that the decree-law “now consecrates a special condition of promotion to the position of brigadier general, which translates a regime very different from those in force in the Armed Forces and in the GNR “

As part of the 1st Quarterly National Operation, which took place on March 10, 2017, elements of the PSP’s Private Security Department (PSD) inspection teams proceeded to hold a company responsible for installing and setting up security alarms in various goldsmiths, throughout the country without the necessary permits.

Police officers, strategically placed at the company’s headquarters and in several gold and similar buying and selling establishments, found that the company was allegedly operating and managing alarm signals without having a permit to do so.

The inspection carried out by the DSP also found the alarm installation company was using a permit of an authorized entity using an internet connection, even though most of the alarms did not result in any response, deceiving the customers that contracted them.

The fraudulent scheme described above should result, in addition to criminal liability, in the administrative cancellation of the license and in the civil liability of both entities, since most of the clients considered themselves protected which was not the case.

It should be noted that the operation, management and monitoring of alarm signals can only be carried out by companies holding license C, duly licensed by the Ministry of Internal Administration, through the Public Security Police.

The PSP announced the arrest of two men and one woman on suspicion of drug trafficking in the city of Beja in an operation in which 6689 individual doses of hashish were seized.

The suspects, aged 28 and 29, were detained on Friday 10^th March at about 4 pm as part of an investigation linked to drug trafficking in Beja, with “a higher incidence” in schools, explains the PSP, In a statement sent to Lusa.

The two men and the woman were present for the first judicial interrogation on Saturday at the Tribunal de Beja, which ordered them to take preventive custody measures.

During the operation, the PSP, in addition to the drug, also seized two light passenger vehicles, a pocket knife, four mobile phones and three cartridges of hunting weapon

A bomb threat forced, early Friday afternoon (10^th March 2017), to evacuate the Agricultural Credit Bank in Oliveira de Azeméis. No explosive devices were found, GNR told Lusa.

According to the same source, the bomb threat was made through a phone call about 14:50 to the branch office of the Mutual Agricultural Credit, located in Luís de Camões street.

The GNR moved to the scene and more than a dozen of military evacuated clients and employees of the bank and cordoned off the street to the traffic.

A GNR explosives deactivation team searched the building but found nothing, concluding that it was a false alarm, the source said, adding that the operation was terminated at about 17:20.

In addition to the GNR, Bombeiros from Oliveira de Azeméis attended the incident.

A foreign citizen, suspected of trafficking in children and referred to in Spain for illicit illegal labour, was detained by the Aliens and Borders Service (SEF) at Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon, accompanied by a minor aged about 12 years.

The suspect and the child had disembarked from a flight from Accra, Ghana. When he presented himself to the SEF inspectors at the airport border. He presented a German travel document issued for children, but which was found to be registered as stolen in the databases.

SEF staff checked and found that the man was also in possession of another Ghana passport belonging to another minor.

The man alleged that he had been asked to accompany the child and to deliver him to his mother in Germany and showed an authorization of the alleged mother and a copy of his passport.

SEF found however that the alleged mother of the child, is referenced in Germany in connection with a child trafficking crime.

The minor was flagged as a victim of human trafficking and handed over to custody of an institution, and continued to be monitored by the SEF.

The alleged trafficker of people has appeared on 9^th March to the judicial authorities and placed under the pre-trial detention.

GNR announced the arrest of 52 people and the seizure of 350 doses of hashish and cocaine in several operations that took place across the country between 8 pm on Friday and 8 am on Saturday (10^th/11^th March 2017).

The operations carried out by the military aimed at “preventing and combating violent crime, road surveillance, among others,” said the GNR in a statement.

During the operations, 52 people were arrested whilst caught in the act, most of them (28) for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Seven people were detained for illegal gambling, six for driving without legal authorization, five for drug trafficking, one for illegal immigration and another for possession of a prohibited weapon, according to the GNR data.

The GNR military also seized 207 doses of hashish, 143 doses of cocaine and a blank weapon.

In traffic surveillance operations, 723 infractions were detected, 228 of which were for speeding and 57 for driving with excess alcohol.

The remaining infringements were due to improper use of the mobile phone in driving (36), lack of mandatory periodic inspection of the vehicle (35), lack of or incorrect use of the seat belt or seat (19), tachograph related infraction, and lack of civil liability insurance (4).

In this 12-hour period, the GNR registered 83 accidents, with 34 injuries.

A 23-year-old man living in Cascais was beaten and stabbed on Saturday at a famous nightclub on the Marginal Avenue of Sá Carneiro, near Funchal’s marina, Madeira.

According to the online news channel Cascais24, the young man, who was accompanied by three other friends, all from Cascais, who travelled to Madeira on 7th March 2017, was struck with a deep blow to the shoulder and had to be transported by the Fire Department to the emergency centre of the Central Hospital of Funchal.

In this health unit was assisted and sutured with several points, having been discharged about five hours later.

Another young man, who accompanied him, also had to be assisted in the same hospital because he had a wound on one of his fingers.

The PSP of Funchal has, however, identified the alleged perpetrator, apparently “an individual who frequented the Madeiran night and known to local authorities” for alleged acts of violence.

Still according to Cascais24, the causes of the aggression are not known, although it is recorded that the group of young people from Cascais was outside the night entertainment establishment, when they were questioned by the alleged aggressor.

The PSP of Porto detained 17 people, between Friday night and Saturday morning, (10^th/11^th March 2017) as part of a crime-fighting and road-monitoring operation, in which it detected 161 drivers for speeding.

In a statement, PSP said that the operation took place between 10 pm on Friday and 9 am on Saturday in the city of Porto.

According to police, seven people were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, eight for alleged drug trafficking, one for possession of pyrotechnic articles and another for disobedience.

The eight arrests made for drug trafficking resulted from an operation carried out in downtown Porto, with hashish, ecstasy, amphetamines, cocaine and liamba in an amount sufficient for about 228, 126, 104, 31 and three individual doses, respectively.

In the area of ​​road surveillance, PSP checked 1512 vehicles by radar, 161 of which were speeding.

Police also inspected 250 drivers and their vehicles, with 242 drivers being tested for alcohol in their blood.

In this action PSP also seized two firecrackers and five documents of vehicles, as well as registered 198 infractions to the Code of the Road and other road legislation.

The PJ announced the arrest in Spain of a Portuguese couple “heavily indicted” of human trafficking and slavery, in an operation that also resulted in the release of more than 30 citizens of various nationalities.

In a statement, the Northern Board of the PJ said that the victims had mostly “a profile of economic and mental weakness”, as well as suffering from alcoholism or drug addiction.

“They were recruited in the north of the country, namely in the areas of Greater Porto, to provide services in the area of ​​agriculture in the region of Logroño, Spain, under false promises of remuneration and labor benefits,” he adds.

On 9th March 2017, a police operation was launched, simultaneously in Portugal and Spain, aimed at dismantling that illicit activity.

In coordination with the Spanish police authorities and in the context of compliance with a letter rogatory, two Portuguese nationals were detained as “the two main perpetrators”.

This operation in Spain also resulted in the release of more than 30 citizens of Portuguese, Algerian, Guinean, Nigerian, Egyptian, Romanian and Russian nationalities, some of whom are in an illegal situation in that country. Some of the victims were sent by the Spanish authorities to the emergency and social support services to return to their countries of origin.

In Portugal, home searches were carried out in Minho and Trás-os-Montes, aiming essentially at collectors / collaborators and relatives of the detained couple in Spain.

In these searches, two men and one woman were found, and various documents, including firearms and ammunition, were seized.

The two detainees will be presented to the National Court in Madrid, with a view to their extradition to Portugal

The PSP destroyed more than three thousand firearms and blank weapons confiscated in criminal proceedings, administrative proceedings or misconduct.

In a statement released on Friday, the PSP’s leadership says that 3129 weapons were destroyed on Tuesday in a specialized company after they were seized or given voluntarily to the state by their owners or advisers.

Guns, including pistols, revolvers, rifles, daggers, razors, swords, were destroyed because of their degradation as they were useless for operational, formative, cultural or museological activity of the security forces.

In 2016, the PSP carried out seven operations of destruction of arms, in a total of about 24,000 firearms and blank arms.