Year: 2014

On the morning of 15^th July 2014, GNR Monchique, in collaboration with the criminal investigation unit  GNR Portimão, detained a citizen of 54 years of age, indicted the crime of drug trafficking. 

The arrest was made after conducting an operation at a property located on the site of Tojeiro, a rural part of the parish of Marmelete, Municipality of Monchique.

The target site has in recent weeks has been the subject of complaints by the local community regarding illegal trafficking activities. During the operation a total of 15 cannabis plants, approximately 1.5 m tall and weighing 15 kg were seized.

The detainee is to appear at the Judicial District Court of Monchique, for application of measures pending trial.

Investigations will continue by the criminal investigation unit GNR Portimão.

According to combined figures from the GNR, PSP and PJ police, violent crime has further decreased by 2.2% in the first 3 months of 2014 compared with the same period last year. The decrease equates to 105 cases.

This is on top of a 9.5 %decrease in violent crime that was recorded in 2013 compared with the previous year.

On 10th July in a combined operation between the GNR Costal Control Unit and the Spanish police a total of 1.5 tones of hashish was seized and a person was arrested near Isla Cristina, Vila Real de  Santo Antonio.

At around 0720 hrs a semi rigid inflatable boat was seen by the GNR on the Guariano and they contact the Spanish police who chased the vessel using a Spanish police boat and a helicopter. The suspect boat was intercepted and 1.5 tons of hashish was found hidden on board. Another vessel was also seized close by and a person arrested.

The person has a previous criminal conviction for international drug trafficking.

 

A man and a woman, aged between 40 and 50 years, were found shot dead in Belverde in Seixal north of Portugal. 

One of the two a woman was found dead due to shooting with a firearm, in a forest area in Belverde, Seixal. Later a man aged around 50 years was also found dead having been shot about 50 meters from the first victim. The bodies were discovered on 9^th July.

According to a PSP source, the weapon used was 7.65 mm, which was found at the scene. There are no known circumstances of the occurrence, although the police are working on the possibility of murder-suicide. The relationship between the two victims has yet to be established.

Police in Setúbal confirmed to Lusa that the first ambulance arrived in the evening of Wednesday, while the second was called during the night.

The two bodies were collected by firefighters and transported from Amora to the morgue of the Hospital Garcia de Orta, Almada.

The case is now being investigated by the Judicial Police.

The Judicial Police’s, National Anti-Corruption Unit (UNCC), under an investigation led by prosecutors, Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DIAP) have completed an investigation into corrupt practices by ENT doctors and medical employees.

The 80 defendants are alleged to have received commissions in the form of cash, vacation trips and goods offered by three medical laboratories to prescribe medical devices of certain brands supplied by these companies.

The commissions were calculated by the number of prescriptions made ​​by doctors. The investigation focused on the period from 2007 to 2012 and of the amounts involved exceeded €400,000. This case involves both private and public health workers and representatives of the companies concerned. This investigation involved the cooperation of the Ministry of Health

It is reported in the Guardian newspaper that Airline passengers entering and leaving the UK on potentially any routes, including transatlantic ones and those connecting with mainland Europe, will be expected to be show that electronic devices in their hand luggage can be powered up, British authorities announced Tuesday 8^th July  in a tightening of aviation security.

In response to warnings of a “credible threat”, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced on Sunday that passengers using airports with direct flights to the US could be made to switch on their mobile phones and other electronic devices to prove to security officials that the devices do not contain explosives.

Britain’s transport department said last week that extra security measures at UK airports were not expected to cause “significant disruption” to passengers, but on Tuesday it announced that passengers on some routes to and from the UK might now be required to show electronic devices in hand luggage could be powered up. The move was being taken “in line with US advice”, the department said.

While the department refused to discuss what routes could be affected, it is understood that the new security criteria would extend to all flights between Britain and other European destinations.

Travellers unable to demonstrate that devices such as laptops and phones can be powered up face not being allowed to bring the devices on to aircraft.

Security experts have told CNN: the changes were based on new intelligence on terror groups trying to build new types of improvised explosives that are harder to detect.  ”While there was no specific threat prompting the enhancements, U.S. officials are concerned about the possibility that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula might develop bombs which could pass through current security measures undetected.”

The news comes after a recent report that Apple iPhones and Samsung Galaxy devices in particular would face additional attention. The report by Reuters noted that the scrutiny would apply to passengers flying to the U.S., but the TSA does not mention these brands in its official statement.

Cell phone explosives are nothing new, one of the most well known cases of a cell phone bomb was the Jan. 5, 1996 killing of Palestinian suicide bomb mastermind Yahya Ayyash.  Ayyash was killed after answering a cell phone packed with explosives.  These new TSA screening procedures though, suggest that officials are concerned that terrorists may have found a way to pack electronics devices with explosives in a way that avoids detection.

26 June 2014 – Drug use prevalence is stable around the world, according to the 2014 World Drug Report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with around 243 million individuals, or 5 per cent of the world’s population aged 15-64, having used an illicit drug in 2012. Problem drug users meanwhile numbered about 27 million, roughly 0.6 per cent of the world’s adult population, or 1 in every 200 people.

Launching the report in Vienna today, the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC, appealed for a stronger focus on the health and human rights of all drug users, but particularly those who inject drugs and are living with HIV. “There remain serious gaps in service provision. In recent years only one in six drug users globally has had access to or received drug dependence treatment services each year,” he said, stressing that some 200,000 drug-related deaths had occurred in 2012.

The UNODC chief said sustainable success in drug control required firm international commitment. A balanced and comprehensive approach addressing both supply and demand should be backed up by evidence-based responses focusing on prevention, treatment, social rehabilitation and integration. “This is particularly important as we move towards the Special Session of the General Assembly on the world drug problem in 2016,” Mr. Fedotov stated. He also stressed that controlled substances should be made more widely available for medical purposes, including for ensuring access to pain medication, while preventing their misuse and diversion for illicit ends.   Read more

On 25^th and 26^th June the Metropolitan Command PSP Lisbon arrested in Lisbon Bairro da Boavista, two men for residential robbery using a firearm. 

In the robbery the victim was assaulted at the entrance of his home by three men who posed as police officers, using vests and badges with the word “police” and exhibiting a firearm, taking the keys to the property.

Once inside the residence and in the presence of a second victim, the suspects searched the house for valuables They took about € 7,500, without the victims offered any resistance, who were handcuffed.

One of the victims however managed to shout for help near a window resulting in a violent assault by the suspects who escaped using a car.

Responding to the alert PSP teams from the  Division of Criminal Investigation PSP Lisbon located in Bairro da Boavista the vehicle used in the escape together with the two occupants.

When police approach a suspect managed to flee but was subsequently caught. In the vehicle a total of € 2750 in cash was found.

Later it was possible to identify the two suspects, one of them having been arrested on the 26^th June, during three house searches conducted  in the neighborhood of Boavista.

The two detainees are also suspected of committing other offenses of the same nature. The PSP are conducting further investigations to link them with other crimes.

 

Detainees were present in the Criminal Court of Lisbon, for custodial proceedings pending trial.

Fraudsters are running dedicated phishing campaigns targeting members of online dating sites, say net monitoring firm Netcraft [23 June 2014]

Fraudsters launch mass phishing attacks against online dating website members. Account holders of Match.com, eHarmony, Zoosk, Plenty of Fish and Christian Mingle and many others have received an increase in phishing emails designed to steal login details said the company.

The emails had been sent from other websites, hacked by cybercriminals to hide the senders’ identity.

The company who analysed the attacks said the phishing campaign against dating sites marked a departure for fraudsters, who typically preferred to target banks.

Fraudsters want genuine accounts

Online dating fraud is often orchestrated by criminal gangs who use fake profiles to trick victims into developing long distance relationships. Once the fraudsters have gathered enough sympathy and trust from a victim, they will exploit this by claiming they need money to pay for travel costs, or to afford medical treatment for a family member. After the money has been stolen, the criminals will make up further reasons why they need more money. In some cases, the fraudsters blackmail their victim into sending money – if the victim has sent any explicit photos or videos to the criminals, they may threaten to send them to the victim’s friends and family.

The amount of money involved in these scams can be considerable. In 2011, a woman in Britain was tricked into sending more than $59,000 to a pair of fraudsters who pretended to have inherited millions of dollars from a military friend in Nigeria. The fraudsters – who were actually a mother and daughter in America – managed to net more than a million dollars before being jailed in 2013.

While many online dating sites take measures to identify fake profiles, phishing for genuine established accounts gives fraudsters the edge.

Some dating sites only allow messages to be exchanged with other users after a subscription fee has been paid; by compromising existing paid accounts, the fraudsters can reduce their traceability by avoiding the need to make payments.

Once the fraudsters get hold of your login information it can be used to befriend other users. Using the dating websites messaging system the fraudsters build sympathy and gather trust from victims and exploit this by claiming they need money to pay for travel costs, or to afford medical treatment for a family member.

You should always be careful about the information you share with anyone you meet online. This not only includes credit card details and where you bank, but also your pets’ names or your mother’s maiden name, as these could be used against you to access financial information.

If you think a profile is fake, check the website for details and report it.

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph in the UK , thousands of pounds are being stolen from online shoppers through false postings on auction websites such as eBay and Gumtree

Online marketplaces such as Gumtree and eBay are at risk of becoming a “hotbed for scams”, according to a charity.

Citizens Advice has issued a warning after its consumer service bureau found one in six consumer problems it investigated from Gumtree was a scam or potential scam.

It found that one in 10 problems reported from eBay in the six months to March also involved a scam.

“These sites are an important service for buyers and sellers, but con artists are profiting from them too,” said Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy. “Scammers are swindling people out of out of hundreds or thousands of pounds by posting false products and services online.”

Online shopping and auction scams were the most common fraud reported in 2013 costing UK consumers £63.6m, according to figures from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureaux.

The charity gave an example of a flathunter who paid £1,650 to a “landlord” after seeing an advertisement on Gumtree, but when he tried to move into the property someone else was already living there.

Another victim spent more than £1,000 on a car bought through eBay, but the vehicle was quickly taken away by a logbook lender as the previous owner had not kept up repayments.

Other popular scams include people paying for goods online that they never receive – including furniture, phones and pets.

Citizens Advice analysed 649 Gumtree cases and 3,711 eBay cases that were reported to the consumer service between October 2013 and March 2014.

It found that one in six of the 649 Gumtree cases was a scam or potential scam (108 cases) and one in ten of the 3,711 eBay cases was a scam or a potential scam (386 cases).

Ms Guy said: “It’s time for online marketplaces to up their game and do more to protect their customers from dodgy dealings by strongly policing their websites, carrying out spot checks and immediately removing any risky ads.”

Citizens Advice also wants a change in the law to stop logbook lenders being able to take away a vehicle if they are not the original borrower.

Gumtree said: “We do everything in our power to keep scammers off our site and encourage anyone that has fallen for a scam, to report it to us and the police. We take fraud very seriously, so our dedicated safety team investigates claims and takes action such as blocking the offender from the site and working with the police in their investigations.

“Gumtree is an open platform which provides a free and easy way to buy and sell, meaning we do not track user information. We are always looking at new ways to improve customer safety such as improving methods of communication between us and our customers.

“We also work with expert third parties such as the Met Police and Get Safe Online on the latest frauds and how to prevent them. We encourage all our users to adhere to our safety tips on the site and discourage people from transferring any money in advance of seeing an item for sale.”

A spokeman from eBay questioned the research, pointing out that Citizens Advice found 386 cases of alleged fraud over six months but the site receives 19m vistors each month in the UK.

He said: “eBay invests millions of pounds each year doing just what the Citizens Advice Bureau recommends: strongly policing our website, carrying out spot checks and immediately removing any ‘risky listings’.

“Customers who purchase on eBay are covered by the eBay Money Back Guarantee and get the item they ordered, or their money back.