The Oporto Judicial Police have arrested seven suspected gang members operating in the Alentejo, Guarda and the Algarve. The men are accused of trafficking in, and the exploitation of, human beings.
The accused belonged to three separate but linked gangs and are accused of holding six people as slaves who were forced to work in agriculture and construction. The victims were illiterate, disabled and have no family who might have noticed their absence.
The police say that the gangs exchanged the victims among themselves and sold some over the border to Spaniards.
All of the gang members were receiving state handouts from Social Security.
The slaves lived under a reign of terror and were beaten, forced to work in agriculture and construction, were hosed down from time to time, ate the remains of their masters’ meals and slept in cramped, unhygienic conditions such as in toilets with no running water.
The authorities certainly suspect that there may be more victims in addition to the six that have been freed.
The Court of Serpa in the Alentejo is hearing oral evidence today and the gang members are highly unlikely to be freed pending trial.
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