Two Argentinians arrested in Portugal last year were identified by Interpol and are among the top 10 most wanted criminals in South America.
According to the same source, the two Argentinians were identified as the perpetrators of serious crimes, such as homicide, abduction and extortion in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.
The television station SIC Notícias on 4th February stated that international authorities confirmed the identity of the two Argentines detained in Portugal in November last year for bank robberies between 2014 and 2016.
Judicial Police source contacted today by Lusa indicated that an extradition request is likely from the countries of Latin America where the two Argentines committed crimes, but will have to be tried and sentenced to comply with the sentences in Portugal.
The same source said that the two detainees kidnapped children of wealthy people in those countries, and asked for ransoms, even killing some of them, even after obtaining the money required.
Following the arrest in 2016 in Aveiro by the National Counter-Terrorism Unit (UNCT) of the Judiciary Police of a group of five individuals, the authorities sent Interpol photographs and fingerprints of three of them that had false identifications.
At the time, the Judiciary Police (PJ) had announced the dismantling of a “very violent” criminal structure of transnational nature that carried out assaults to armed banks in the Greater Lisbon area.
The five men, aged between 30 and 50, were arrested in Portugal on suspicion of crimes of criminal association, qualified robbery on bank premises, falsification of documents and possession of a prohibited weapon.
According to the PJ, this “very violent” criminal structure was suspected of having carried out five armed robberies on bank premises between mid-2014 and mid-year in the Greater Lisbon area, “carefully planned and executed.”
Of the five detainees, one was of Portuguese nationality, the other Spanish, and three submitted false documentation, which the police investigated.
During the police action and as a result of home searches, the PJ seized “relevant means of proof”, such as latex masks, wigs and helmets, various firearms and ammunition, vehicles and a vast collection of counterfeit documents.
The PJ, which classifies this police operation as complex, also said that the five detainees were remanded in custody after being present at the first judicial interrogation.
The operation was carried out by UNCT of the PJ, in a survey conducted by the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) of Loures. Source Diario de Noticais