Category: Uncategorized

A major fire at a paper mill in the municipality of Santa Maria da Feira was finally brought under control at midnight on 17^th March after breaking out in the late afternoon. At one stage it was being fought by about 135 firefighters and 45 vehicles, according to the District Relief Operations Command (CDOS) in Aveiro.

The company had four paper and cardboard waste warehouses, with three of them being “totally taken” by the fire, said Jose Carlos Pinto, commander of the Lourosa Voluntary Firefighters, who said last night that the strategy now is to “lower the intensity” of flames. He added that firefighters cannot enter the factory premises because of the high temperatures, he told reporters at the scene.

Some employees were able to retrieve computers and other material on time. The owner of the factory, approached by Lusa, declined to comment.

According to SIC, there had been a danger of fire spreading to houses that were quite close to the burning factory, as well as to another factory that is next door. There are no victims reported.

The National Republican Guard (GNR) Protection of Nature and Environment (SEPNA) and the Protection and Relief Intervention Group (GIPS), will conduct throughout Portugal until May 14, several actions aimed mainly at the school communities, on the problem of forest fires.

These awareness actions aim to raise awareness of the importance of the preventive procedures to be adopted at this time of year, namely on the use of fire, cleaning and removal of weeds and maintenance of fuel management bands, with a view to reducing the number of occurrence and minimization of forest fire risks.

The GNR records for 2016 more than 161 thousand hectares (more 93 thousand than in 2015) were burned, compared to the same period in 2015 (figures in brackets):

• 16,515 occurrences (minus 3 966);
• 7,580 crimes (minus 1,188);
• 21 detainees (minus 53);
• 2 095 misconduct (less 581);
• 578 people identified (minus 324).

It should be noted that the three main causes of fire were:

• 33% due to negligence;
• 36% for unknown causes;
• 20% intentional;
• 10% by re-ignition.

In addition to these awareness actions, in a subsequent phase, enforcement actions will also be carried out with the objective of correcting situations of gross non-compliance with the mandatory maintenance of the fuel management bands.

On 15 March 2017, the Spanish Guardia Civil supported by Europol, arrested in Girona (Spain) a Moroccan national suspected of helping finance the terrorist group Islamic State (IS).

The arrestee, aged 43, was under investigation for participating, along with two of his brothers arrested in July 2016, in a complex financial scheme which involved sending funds to IS fighters in Syria and Iraq through money transfer agencies.

Europol has supported Guardia Civil on-the-spot by deploying two terrorist experts to Girona to crosscheck the data found against Europol’s databases in real-time.

The investigation began in 2016 when investigators detected a network that sent funds to IS fighters. The presence of a family member in Syria motivated the rest of the brothers to raise funds and later send the money to Syria by using a complex network of intermediaries. The criminals sent small amounts of money in an attempt to go unnoticed by the Spanish law enforcement authorities.

A backpack with almost 5,000 euros in cash, lost on the Lisbon subway, was subsequently found in the   subway and returned by police to its rightful owner.

The backpack was found by a 35-year-old citizen who contacted the Public Transport Security Division of the PSP of Lisbon, on Thursday 16^th March according to the PSP Metropolitan Command of Lisbon.

When inspecting the inside of the backpack, the police found, in addition to a mobile phone, 4600 euros in notes.

Following enquiries, they eventually identified and located the owner of the backpack and the money, a foreign citizen, who was a tourist passing through Lisbon, who “was surprised and grateful for the effectiveness of the Portuguese police.”

Computers at the National Defence Institute, under the protection of the Ministry of Defence, were attacked by hackers at the end of February and earlier this month.

This computer attack hit at least two computers of the National Defence Institute (IDN), and, according to Lusa source of the Ministry of National Defence, who supervises the institute. The problem was solved without consequences or losses.

This was the first attack of “hackers” registered by the Ministry of National Defence in 2017.

In 2016, two intrusions were detected in the Defence area, also in March and IDN, described as incidents with no consequences for the ministry.

IDN, headquartered in Lisbon, is a body under the protection of the Ministry of National Defence and is dedicated to research, training and dissemination of the major issues of national defence and international security.

All these cases were communicated to the National Centre for Cyber-Defence, in the dependence of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

In 2014, the National Centre for Cyber ​​Security was created, part of the National Security Office, which, according to its website, “acts as an operational coordinator and national authority specialized in cybersecurity with state entities, essential service operators And digital service providers “.

According to the Internal Security Report of 2015, meetings were held between the National Cyber-security and Cyber-Defence Centres, as well as “operational meetings” with the Security Information Service (SIS) and the Judicial Police (PJ).

In 2015, a “situation room” was created to accompany “possible hackvistas during the electoral process” of the October legislative elections.

Also in that year, the National Cyberspace Security Strategy was published.

The PJ has indicated the detention of a woman in Portugal in the context of an international investigation of Belgian transport companies, which will have injured the Social Security of this country in about seven million euros.

According to PJ, the woman was detained for crimes of tax fraud, social security fraud and criminal association and will be present to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Lisbon Court of appeal for first judicial interrogation.

The arrest was made by the National Anti-Corruption Unit (UNCC) and took place under the “Operation Octopus”, following the investigations carried out in Portugal, and in compliance with a European arrest warrant issued by the Belgian authorities.

Belgian companies are suspected of having committed fraud to the Belgian Social Security in an amount close to seven million euros

In the scope of the investigations, the PJ conducted on 14^th March 2017 two searches in the Lisbon area.

According to a statement released by PJ at the time, the investigation is aimed at “three Belgian transport companies, which will have resorted to the services of a criminal organization operating in Portugal and Slovakia, circumventing Social Security laws. Committed fraud to the Belgian Social Security in an amount close to seven million euros “.

The PJ is part of an international joint investigation team, with French, Belgian and Slovak police authorities.

“In the context of this operation, the Federal Judicial Police of East Flanders, in collaboration with the social inspection services, carried out 12 searches in Brussels, Malines, Wavre-Sainte-Catherine, Hamme and Pervijse,” adds PJ.

In the course of these searches carried out in other countries, according to the note, two people were arrested and five were presented for judicial interrogation, in addition to the Belgian authorities seizing ten vehicles.

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.