The Judiciary Police (PJ) has carried out an operation today, Tuesday, 20th January, serving more than fifty arrest warrants against alleged members of a Portuguese ultranationalist group by the name of ‘1143’, led by repeat criminal and neonazi Mário Machado.
The investigation, spearheaded by Lisbon’s Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP), is examining, among other offences, crimes of criminal association, bodily harm, and incitement to hatred and violence.
According to a statement issued by police, the operation, which aimed “to dismantle a criminal organisation responsible for offences of discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence, aggravated threats and coercion, qualified bodily harm, and possession of prohibited weapons”, resulted in 37 arrests. Those detained have been described to press as “suspects with extensive criminal records and links to international hate groups”.
“The detainees, aged between 30 and 54, adopted and disseminated Nazi ideology, inherent to National Socialist culture and the radical, violent far-right, acting on racist and xenophobic motives with the aim of intimidating, persecuting, and coercing ethnic minorities, particularly immigrants,” the PJ revealed.
Amongst the 37 arrested are, according to information brought to light by national newspaper Diário de Notícias, a serving officer from a PSP(Public Security Police) police station in Setúbal, and a sergeant in the Portuguese Air Force.
During the operation, codenamed ‘Irmandade’ (Brotherhood), a further 15 individuals were formally named as defendants, and 65 searches were carried out at residential and non-residential premises. “A large quantity of propaganda material and merchandising associated with violent far-right ideology, namely neo-Nazi, as well as various weapons, was also seized,” the PJ added.
The same statement reveals that the suspects are believed to have founded a criminal organisation with the sole purpose of developing activities that incited discrimination, hatred and racial violence, operating within a hierarchical and firmly established structure with a clear division of roles.
The operation involved around 300 officers in order to carry out the smooth detainment of suspects, hailing from various PJ units.
Those arrested will appear on Wednesday, the 21st, before the Central Criminal Investigation Court in Lisbon for initial judicial questioning, at which coercive measures will be decided.
For reference, Mário Machado, the leader of the neo-Nazi faction, has previously been convicted of numerous violent crimes. He has been serving a prison sentence of two years and ten months since last May, after being imprisoned for incitement to hatred and violence. Machado posted messages on the social media website X, formerly known as Twitter, calling for the “forced prostitution” of women from left-wing parties, in particular targeting Renata Cambra, a university lecturer and leading figure in the Socialist Alternative Movement (MAS).
The ‘1143 Group’, led by Machado, is an ultranationalist organisation that has promoted and disseminated Nazi propaganda in Portugal for a number of years. Since 2020, under Machado’s leadership, it has organised a number of violent actions and demonstrations inciting hatred against immigrants, which have drawn the attention of the PJ on various occasions. Several of its members are the subject of ongoing judicial investigations.
One of the most high-profile incidents occurred on 25th April last year, when Machado and a retinue of his thugs became involved in clashes with counter-protesters, leading to his arrest by the PSP.
Source: DN
