Year: 2014

On 14th March the Center for Criminal Investigation of GNR Tavira, apprehended a 17 year old youth in connection with the theft of mopeds and bicycles in the municipality of Castro Marim.

The GNR commenced the investigation in February after reports of the theft of a mopeds in Castro Marim. When confronted by the GNR he admitted the theft and the involvement of other young persons.

A warehouse was subsequently located in the parish of Azinhal where two stolen velocipedes, a moped and bicycles were discovered.

It is suspected that the youth maybe involved in five other cases in the last month in that county, together with four other youths, all under 16.

It was reported by the BBC on 13th March 2014, that a health watchdog in the UK is warning that thousands of people have been sent hoax emails suggesting they have cancer.

The messages appear to come from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

It says the contents are likely to be distressing and has reported the hoax to the police.

It is not clear exactly how many people are affected, but based on the high number of calls to the organisation it is thought to number thousands.

Sir Andrew Dillon, the chief executive of NICE, said: “A spam email purporting to come from NICE is being sent to members of the public regarding cancer test results.

“This email is likely to cause distress to recipients since it advises that ‘test results’ indicate they may have cancer.

“This malicious email is not from NICE and we are currently investigating its origin. We take this matter very seriously and have reported it to the police.”

NICE is advising people who have received the email – the subject line of which is important blood analysis result – to delete it without opening it and not to click on any links.

Comment

A very nasty type of hoax email aimed solely at causing alarm and distress. No reports I have been passed to Safe Communities Algarve that anyone in the British community hear in the Algarve has received this hoax email.

 

In recent days several news and commentary on the social networks have been published, illustrating a video posted on YOUTUBE and where an alleged police officer undresses in establishment in Porto. 

The man in question is wearing a uniform of the Special Police Unit. Based on this the PSP launched an investigation to determine whether or not this was a serving police officer.

It has been concluded that this is a video regarding a spectacle occurred in 2011 and that the man in question, is a professional dancer not a police officer. Such people perform in various establishments in Porto making use of numerous professional uniforms and costumes.

The film, a gay bar in Porto, has been placed on YouTube in May 2011, but only now started to attract attention, following the case of a GNR officer recently suspended after a striptease session with uniform service and a gun in a nightclub in the Oliveira Azeméis.

On the early hours of 12th March 2014 GNR Loulé conducted an anti-crime operation involving the execution of a search warrant at a residence located in Alte, within the municipality of Loulé.

The operation was the culmination of a 3 month investigation and resulted in the arrest of a Portuguese citizen, aged 61 years old, drug trafficking and the unlawful possession of various weapons.

During the operation the following was seized: three shotguns, two semi-automatic weapons, a rifle, a compressed air weapon, a telescopic sight, tear gas canister, dozens of cartridges and ammunition of various calibre (including military ammo), and various knives and a military helmet. A small quantity of drugs was also seized; namely four individual doses of marijuana.

The detainee is to appear at the Judicial District Court of Loulé for remand pending trial.

On 9th March the Centre of Criminal Investigation GNR Tavira conducted an operation against drug trafficking, executing three search warrants at two residences located in Olhão and another residence located in Castro Marim.

The operation which continued until 10th March, followed an investigation that had been conducted over the last year and culminated in the arrest of three persons aged 23, 25 and 31 years of age, and the detention of a 19 year old all for drug trafficking.

During the operation the GNR seized 279 individual doses of heroin, two firearms and various ammunition, an extendable baton, a melee weapon, two cars and €2,200 in cash, as well as many articles related to packaging and distribution of narcotic products, in the form of direct sale to the consumer.

Upon the completion of this operation the GNR believes that this has delivered a severe blow to drug trafficking activity in the municipalities of Castro Marim and Vila Real de Santo António.

The detainees, one of whom had a criminal record for the crime of serious assault, will be presented at the Judicial District Court of Faro and Vila Real de Santo António for application to be placed in remand pending trial.

On 10th March 2014 at 16:00 PSP Portimão arrested a person aged 25 years for trafficking in narcotics, in the city of Portimão.

About a month ago the PSP became aware of an outbreak of drug trafficking in a residential area of the city. PSP investigated this and mounted an operation in order to intercept the suspect in the act of selling the drugs.

When the suspect was stopped and searched a total of 19 individual doses of heroin, 2 single doses of cocaine, 2 mobile phones and €52.55  in cash were seized whereupon the person was arrested.

The suspect was detained and will appear in court on 11th March.

On 6th March 2014 a 21 year-old man was arrested by GNR Lagoa on suspicion of drug trafficking.

He was approached by GNR officers in the street and found to be in possession of 9.9 doses of hashish and €150 euros in cash. In a subsequent search of his residence GNR officers discovered and seized a further 326 doses of hashish, a precision scale and two cartridges. He has been notified to appear in court.

On 6th March 2014 the  Center of Criminal Investigation GNR Loulé, arrested a 47 year old man for operating an illegal scrapyard and seized several stolen items.

The operation involved a search of his residence, in which, four LCD three electric pumps for water, three air conditioning motors, a water heater, an electric boiler, one shredder, two compressors, a welding machine, a chainsaw, leaf blower, two car radios, various taps and mixers new, and  several hundred feet of copper wire electricity and telecommunications, worth together around €10,000.

Also seized was €3600 euros, which is suspected to originate from the activity of buying and selling junk and stolen material plus a caliber 6.35 weapon. The scrapyard was finally closed and sealed for lack of license.

Also seized were two potentially dangerous breed of dogs without the appropriate documentation. The arrested person will appear before the Court of Loulé.

A woman under investigation by the GNR for the abuse of her daughter, has been arrested after a search was conducted at her home during which various weapons were found.

Acting on a warrant issued  by NAVE the authorities discovered a 6.35 mm pistol plus a number of martial arts weapons including a sword, a bow and arrows, “ninja” arrows, batons with spikes, various knives and pepper spray.

Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras (SEF) have signed on 27th February 2014 in Faro, a Memorandum of Cooperation with Associação Safe Communities Algarve ‘(SCA).

This aims to establish a framework of cooperation between the SEF and the SCA, in order to disseminate among the foreign community, information about the mission and tasks of the development of SEF, both in the area of internal security, compliance with documentation including matters such as legalization of stay in the national territory.

The protocol was signed by the Regional Director of SEF Algarve, Inspectora Superior Fátima Teixeira, and the President of the Associação Safe Communities Algarve, David Thomas at the premises of the SEF Regional Directorate of the Algarve SEF.

David Thomas said” I am delighted with this agreement as it will help in the development of a number of new initiatives and help promote the work of SEF as well as furthering awareness of various immigration matters among the foreign population here in the Algarve”.