Category: Uncategorized

It was reported on 27th April 2018 that the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) intercepted at the Porto Airport two foreign nationals on suspicion of smuggling tobacco.

The persons, 31 and 40 years old, from a risk analysis, were identified by SEF during the documentary check made to the passengers coming from the Istanbul flight.

In close collaboration with the Tax and Customs Authority (ATA), 55,200 cigarettes of various American brands were detected in the hold baggage of these individuals, with an estimated market value of around € 13,000.

The material in question was apprehended by the ATA, and the foreign citizens were barred from entering Portugal by the SEF.

The Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) carried out five search warrants in the city of Coimbra, following an investigation, under the coordination of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, on suspicion of the crime of aiding illegal immigration and employing  foreign citizens in an irregular situation in Portugal.

The writs, three domiciliary and the rest at restaurants, led to the seizure of documentation related to the crimes under investigation and identified fifteen individuals, twelve of them of foreign nationality.

Two foreign nationals and an associated company were accused.

Fifteen SEF operations were involved in the operation.

On 3^rd May the Territorial Command of Viseu, through the Criminal Investigation Center of Santa Comba Dão, identified a 35-year-old man for robbery, extortion and threats with firearms in the municipality of Tondela .

In the context of an investigation into the theft of vehicles, which took place since June 2017, which involved extortion, where the suspect threatened the victims in order to evict them, seven search warrants were issued, four were domiciled and three in vehicles, resulting in the seizure of  two firearms; a portable computer and a watch.

The identified, with criminal records for robbery, was constituted a defendant and subject to the residential custody and reporting to police pending trial.

The action was supported by the military Intervention Unit and the Territorial Commands of Viseu and Coimbra.

On May 3^rd the Territorial Command of Faro, through the Criminal Investigation Unit of Loulé, yesterday arrested two men aged 28 and 32 years for five crimes of qualified theft in Ourique.

As part of an investigation into theft and use of a bank card, initiated a little over a week ago, by the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action of Loulé, a police operation was carried out, culminating in the detention of the two individuals.

The suspects operated in golf practice areas where high-value goods were stolen.  At the time they observed the victims typing in their pin numbers to pay for items, following which they then stole items including the bank cards. Then they made withdrawals and made purchases of large value items, while the card remained active.

The action resulted in the apprehension of:

• A motor vehicle;
• Three watches with a total value of 90 thousand euros;
• Stolen bank cards and documents;
• Several pieces of new clothing, worth EUR 1 000;
• A pair of glasses;
• A GPS.

To date, the value ​​of stolen objects and amounts of obtained by the improper acquisition of goods using stolen bank cards exceeds 120 thousand euros.

The detainees developed criminal activity with a high level of organization, remaining in the national territory for a short period of time, immediately leaving Portugal with the stolen goods and illicitly acquired products as a way to reduce the likelihood of being apprehended by the authorities .

The detainees are currently present at the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action of Loulé.

The action was supported by the Albufeira Traffic Detachment and the Ourique Transit Post.

Between May 24 and 26, the Portimão Arena and the Fair and Exhibition Park will once again be the stage for ALGARSAFE – the International Civil Protection and Relief Fair of Portimão, an initiative co-organized by the Portimão and the Firemen of Portimão, supported by Civil Protection Portimão; Junta da Freguesia of Portimão; APSEI, Liga dos Bombeiros Portuguese (Union of Portuguese Firemen); National School of Firemen and Safe Communities Portugal

This will be the largest trade fair south of the Targus, and organisation of public safety services and civil protection services, as well as the safety and health agents, as well as the operators of the whole system of protection operations.

Common, unique program that covers all safety issues!

A commercial space for the best solutions and equipment, pedagogical and statistical forums, so that you have the information and responsibility to protect your life, opportunities for the best understanding of systems. Do not hesitate to learn more about being prepared to help.

It is also directed to families, recreational communities

Full program in Portuguese and on line booking here

An inclusive fair with FREE ENTRY FOR EVERYONE!

• 10,000 Visitors
• 100 Exhibitors / Entities Represented
• Over 50 Activities already scheduled!!

A dedicated space of “body and soul” to your protection and help!

 

4.000m² of indoor space for providers and suppliers of goods and services in the area of security and safety, civil protection agents, the integrated system of operations of protection and relief at national level.

A dedicated space of “body and soul” to your protection and help!

 

8.000m² of outdoor space: -Demonstrations and work of vehicles and civil protection equipment and:

• Operational Exercises and workshops l
• Awareness and Public Information Activities
• Static exposure of resources

Civil Protection Agents

-PLASTRON of capabilities of the forces and services

 

A program that covers all aspects of security!

• Seminars and conferences
• Official public statements
• Thematic Courses and Training
• Workshops
• Demonstrations practices
• Awareness activities

 

A pedagogical Fair!

– “Fireman for a day”

-Interactive pedagogical statements of education for risk

-Visits organized for the community

 

A meeting space of several important moments!

-Delivery of certificate of “City Resilient “to the Municipalities of Algarve Region by the United Nations

-Program presentation

“Algarve Insurance 2018” -Region of Algarve Tourism

The Metropolitan Command of Lisbon of the PSP, through the Airport Security Division, on April 19, arrested two men, aged 31, suspected of committing theft.

The defendants worked together between the subway station Humberto Delgado Airport and the airport itself.

While a suspect removed the wallet from the back of a tourist’s backpack, with his right hand holding a partially open map at the same time with his other hand to hide the act, the other suspect strategically positioned himself in order to hide the theft from passengers close by.

The two men were intercepted inside the airport in the arrivals hall of the airport, in possession of the portfolio, containing objects stolen, which were seized.

The detainees were present for the first judicial interrogation and the award of pre-trail conditions and the hearing was scheduled for May 4.

On 26^th April 2018 Safe Communities Portugal signed a protocol with the Secretary of State for Internal Administration Isabel Oneto to help further enhance the security of foreigners in the Algarve.

The protocol includes the development of the Safe Communities Portugal Association’s website to provide advice to foreign tourists in the Algarve, produce and distribute information leaflets, the holding of seminars etc, as well as provide informational content to develop communications media, as part of crime prevention action.

These are the four areas of the Protocol of Collaboration, signed yesterday, in Lagoa, by the Secretary of State Assistant and the Internal Administration and by the President of the Association Safe Communities Portugal.

David Thomas, Founder and President of the Association speaking, at the event told Informação Sul that “the Algarve is a relatively safe region. In fact, Portugal has the lowest crime rate in Europe, but there are still small crimes and we need to educate people to be more careful about their belongings and properties. “So, “the Algarve is a very safe place, but there is always more to do to make it even safer”.

The Secretary of State Isabel Oneto said “that the objective “is to have entities that are regionally integrated and that help us with the prevention and security policies”, in the two senses in English of security and safety, that is to say, security and civil protection.

“What we ask this association, which has a strong integration with the foreign community, not only the resident in the Algarve, but also the one that visits us, is that they use their website to give advice to tourists and to foreign residents”.

David Thomas, said: “With this protocol, we can give more prominence and more publicity to these security issues and civil protection by encouraging people to follow simple advice to increase their safety “.

“We will do this by improving communication, working with the Ministry of Internal Administration and the Security Forces, seeing the best way to communicate with tourists, so as to make their stay in the Algarve and the country even safer. “

But according to Secretary of State Isabel Oneto, although the protocol talks mainly about crime prevention, civil protection issues are also be the object of the association’s work: “imagine a situation of insecurity on the beach. We can put this information on the Safe Communities website. ”

The initiative also aims to “promote collaboration with the resident foreign community in order to know what concerns them the most”, as well as to establish “a greater interaction between the association and the Ministry of Internal Administration, in order to articulate actions aimed at the foreign community.”

David Thomas, in his statements to the Informação Sul, also stressed the importance of “collaboration with PSP, GNR, SEF, INCF, Embassies, ANPC, ASAE, Municipalities”, since “working closely with these entities, it is easier to access to information and disseminate it later.

But it is not only foreigners who closely follow the work of Safe Communities: “The association is for everyone. What we do is available to all, foreigners or not. On Facebook, many of our followers are even Portuguese, “he recalled.

However, it is certain that the activity of the association is directed in particular to foreigners, residents or visitors. The site already features information in ten languages, including Chinese and Russian.

And the activity of the association, which began only in the Algarve, has already extended to Lisbon and Madeira.

The signing ceremony was also attended by the Commanders of the GNR, PSP and SEF in the Algarve.

Press article by Informação Sul

Original in Portuguese

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI) announced on Wednesday 25th April an investment of around one million euros in the refurbishment of two facilities of the criminal investigation area of ​​the Public Security Police.

In a note sent to the Lusa agency, the MAI said that a competition will be launched for the refurbishment contract of the Palacete das Águas Livres, in Belas, where the Department of Criminal Investigation of the National Directorate of PSP.

According to the MAI, this work, costing 800 thousand euros, is provided for in the Law on Programming Infrastructures and Equipment of Security Forces and Services.

Under the same law, the procedure for contracting the adaptation contract of the Alto do Duque Fort in Lisbon for the installation of the Criminal Investigation Division of Lisbon of the PSP, a work with a value of 180 thousand euros

The MAI expects the works to be completed within a maximum period of nine months after the tender procedure.

The president of the Union of Criminal Investigation Officials of the Judiciary Police (ASFIC) (PJ) on Friday 13^th April, called for the admission of at least 240 inspectors by 2020, to fill the gaps and rejuvenate a picture with a “very high” average age.

Speaking to Lusa in Braga, on the side lines of the 5th Congress of Criminal Investigation, Ricardo Valadas said that the 120 inspectors who are going to enter in 2019 for the PJ are “manifestly insufficient” for what the police lost in terms of the cadre “in the last eight or nine years.”

“We needed to open another competition immediately, so that at least 120 other inspectors will enter by 2020,” he said.

According to Ricardo Valadas, “the financial restrictions of recent years have been suffocating the work of the PJ and the dynamics necessary” to maintain the security of the country.

The result, he added, is a cadre of inspectors with a “very high average age, around 48 years old.”

“There is a lot of experience, but it has to be passed on to the younger generations, and this work has to be done in a timely manner,” he emphasized.

Likewise, he said that there are facilities of the PJ “in urgent need of reforms”, due to lack of space, lack of working conditions and structural problems.

“There are departments where it is impossible to work with the minimum acceptable conditions for professionals of the PJ,” he said, pointing out as an example the facilities of Braga, but also alluding as “very problematic cases”, Ponta Delgada, Setúbal and Faro.

He admitted that there is “will” and “sensitivity” of the Ministry of Justice to solve the problems of human and material resources, but “economic constraints” have prevented the solutions from advancing.

“The Ministry of Finance cannot restrict the security of the citizen, you cannot question certain types of values ​​and security is the main value to live in freedom. You cannot cut where there must be daily investment,” he said.

Organized by the Trade Union of Criminal Investigation Officials of the PJ, the 5th Congress of Criminal Investigation has as its theme Terrorism.

Not wishing to refer to the phenomenon, particularly the threat levels in Portugal, Ricardo Valadas preferred to underline that the PJ is the “only organization” that investigates terrorism in the country and, therefore, needs to be strengthened.

“We do not like to focus on levels of threat because we do not want to cause alarm. We work every day to ensure the safety of citizens so that they feel safe without being embarrassed by security devices,” he said.

He recalled that terrorism “is not fought in the media, but in secrecy, discretion, identification of phenomena and international cooperation.”

“It is this work that is done and sometimes not understood,” he said

The union representing the SEF inspectors warned on Thursday of a “lack of control” of trafficking in human beings in Portugal due to the lack of means to prevent and combat this crime, which is increasing in the country.

“The SEF inspectors want to alert the Portuguese society, the deputies and especially the Government to the need to improve action and prevent this scourge in Portugal,” the union who are planning holding a conference on trafficking of human beings, told Lusa.

The Trade Union of the Career of Investigation and Inspection of the Aliens and Borders Service (SCIF / SEF) will hold the conference “Trafficking in human beings – the SEF and the fight against human trafficking” on April 27 in Lisbon.

Acácio Pereira said that the choice of this topic for the conference is related to “the frightening rise in recent years of trafficking in human beings in Europe, including in Portugal.”

According to the trade unionist, trafficking in human beings is “modern slavery” and constitutes a crime that “has to be fought better”.

“The inspectors of SEF feel the impotence of those who do not have the means, neither to prevent, nor to fight and to persecute most of the crimes,” he maintained, reporting data from 2017, which show that in Portugal there are tens of thousands of foreigners abused on farms. He added that the country had begun to be used as a new route of trafficking of African children.

Acácio Pereira said that these children and adolescents are used for exploitation and slavery in countries such as France or Germany, functioning Portugal as a gateway to the Schengen area.

“In most cases, African children arrive with false documents, but accompanied by adults with legal documentation, almost always from Portuguese-speaking countries,” he said. He explained that SEF inspectors “have been able to arrest traffickers and rescue some children”, but the perception is that we must “increase the resources so that most of this traffic does not continue”.

According to the SCIF / SEF, labour exploitation in agricultural areas, especially in the Alentejo, “is out of control due to lack of capacity of the SEF to control the overwhelming majority of farms where illegal workers are abused.”

“With the progressive realization of irrigation projects in the Alentejo, especially in the Alqueva and Alentejo coastal areas, there are seasonal work spikes in different cultures, which means that, throughout the year, there are always coming and going