The Judicial Police has dismantled an alleged organised criminal group, which was dedicated to the repeated practice of crimes of aid to illegal immigration, corruption, money laundering and document forgery.
In a statement sent to the Lusa news agency, the PJ reported that 13 people were arrested, seven men and six women, including seven businessmen, a lawyer and an employee of the Directorate-General for Consular Affairs and Portuguese Communities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The detainees are between the ages of 26 and 64 and have no known criminal record.
Within the operation of the Center's Board of Directors, which they titled "Gambérria", 40 home and non-home searches were carried out in Coimbra, Espinho, Carregal do Sal, Amadora, Odivelas, Loures and Lisbon.
"The complex ongoing investigation, which began in September 2023, showed this criminal group has been dedicating itself to the irregular and massive legalisation of foreign citizens in Portugal, obtaining financial proceeds in the order of millions of euros," the statement said.
According to the PJ, immigrants paid "large amounts to achieve legalisation in national territory" and were guided by the group through complex schemes in the countries of origin, with the promise of providing a set of services.
Among the services were the obtaining of employment contracts, Tax Identification Number (NIF), Social Security Identification Number (NISS), SNS User Number (National Health Service), translation and certification of criminal records, opening of bank accounts, residence certificates, among others.
"Many of the immigrants legalised by this group, despite appearing as working and residing in Portugal, are actually in other countries of the EU," added the PJ.
In the searches carried out, "a huge" collection of documentation used in irregular legalization processes of foreigners, computer equipment, 11 motor vehicles, some of which are of high displacement, about one million euros in cash and two elephant tusks in ivory weighing about 50 kilos were seized.
Several articles acquired with the proceeds of the crime and articles used in the falsification of documents were also learned, including a white seal found in a company where thousands of criminal record certificates of foreign citizens would be "validated".
According to PJ, the Asset Recovery Office seized six properties, two rustic buildings and four urban buildings (a villa and three apartments) and froze 35 bank accounts, two financial products of the game company Betano and a cryptoasset account of Binance.
Around 200 officers of the PJ, two judges, a prosecutor and representatives of the Bar Association participated in the operation.
Source https://postal.pt/
