On 21st January 2014 following a joint investigation between the PSP Olhão and GNR Faro police and GNR executed five search warrants in house searches, three search warrants in food and beverage, one at a bakery and three in vehicle in an operation targeting a gang responsible for over fifty burglaries involving tobacco machines. Four men aged between 29 and 42 were arrested.
The burglaries took place over a wide area in the eastern Algarve, mainly concentrated in the municipalities of Faro, Olhão, Tavira, Loulé and Silves. The operation took place when the gang were in the act of stealing from a restaurant in Almancil.
Contributors to this operation included a team of the detachment Coastal Monitoring the GNR in Olhão and two teams of ASAE who conducted the inspection of the commercial establishments, closing two of them for lack of minimum conditions of hygiene and food.
In addition to the recovery of items stolen that night, also seized were: thousands of packs of different brands of tobacco, plus tobacco machines, plasmas, laptops, bottled drinks (whisky, liqueurs and port wine), over a hundred gas cylinders, grinders, consoles, stereos, DVD players, various tools and appliances.