A shoot-out near Olhão’s train station ended up with one man being hit in the head. The gunman was Luís Costa who now faces eight years and six months in prison.
Another of the defendants in the Olhão ‘drug wars’ prosecutions was convicted of having sex with a minor, aged 13, while holed up on the nearby island of Culatra.
A second man has been handed a six years and six months sentence by Faro court on July 14th. Both men were accused of various drug related crimes that culminated in the shooting outside the railway station.
Hélder Gomes, 21, was convicted of the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old minor. Gomes was arrested in September 2016 on the Ria Formosa island of Culatra.
He was wanted for his alleged involvement in a June 2015 incident near the Ria Shopping centre in Olhão, for his involvement in the shooting at the city's train station in September that year, and for various drug-related robberies that have plagued the neighbourhood.
In court, it was shown that all of these incidents related to the life of drug trafficking in which Gomes had become deeply involved.
When Gomes was captured, he was with the underage girl who had 'run away from home,' leaving her distraught family to mount a local 'missing person' campaign.
In court it was proved that Gomes and the 13-year-old schoolgirl both had engaged in regular sexual intercourse.
Filipe Sebastião, also was convicted due to his involvement in the shooting at Olhão's train station (Hélder fired at him and Filipe shot back), and also of involvement in a confrontation on the road to Penha, Faro, in June 2016.
With his twin brother, Sebastião attacked a man on crutches, and fired three shotgun cartridges. His brother was sentenced to two years and six months, suspended.
